To comply with the Digital Markets Act, Apple is making changes to iOS, Safari and the App Store in the European Union. The changes include new options for processing app payments and distributing iOS apps, plus more than 600 new APIs, expanded app analytics and functionality for alternative browser engines, Apple says. To combat scams and fraud as Apple loosens restrictions, the company is introducing something called Notarization for iOS apps, to authorize marketplace developers, and is adding disclosures on alternative payments. The new capabilities will become available to users in the 27 EU countries beginning in March.

“The changes we’re announcing today comply with the Digital Markets Act’s requirements in the European Union, while helping to protect EU users from the unavoidable increased privacy and security threats this regulation brings,” Apple said in a newsroom post. Security was aways Apple’s principal defense against sideloading.

As for compliance, TechCrunch notes “it will be up to the European Commission, which oversees gatekeepers’ compliance with the DMA, to assess whether or not they meet the law’s requirements.”

The Verge describes how the new “alternative app marketplaces” will work: “users in the EU and on iOS 17.4 will be able to download a marketplace from that marketplace’s website.” In order to be used on an iPhone, the third-party marketplaces must be preapproved by Apple, “and once you download one, you have to explicitly give it permission to download apps to your device,” The Verge explains, noting permission must only be given once to download apps ongoing.

This includes apps that violate App Store guidelines. “You can even set a non-App Store marketplace as the default on your device,” The Verge reports. Developers can still choose to stick with Apple’s own payment services and in-app purchases, which require an additional 3 percent fee. Or, they can integrate a third-party payment system and avoid that 3 percent surcharge.

Separate from that, under the DMA Apple is introducing something it calls a “core technology fee.” “This looks intended to ensure that Apple can continue to take a cut in some scenarios, even when developers opt to step outside its walled garden — either for distributing their apps via alternative app stores or by encouraging users to pay for additional content by following a link redirecting them to their own websites to make payments,” writes TechCrunch.

The core tech fee is another new business element under the DMA. It prescribes that “iOS apps distributed from the App Store and/or an alternative app marketplace will pay €0.50 for each first annual install per year over a 1 million threshold.”

Additionally, Apple has reduced its commission for iOS apps on the App Store to “either 10 percent (for the vast majority of developers, and subscriptions following their first year) or 17 percent on transactions for digital goods and services.” Apple says 99 percent of developers will pay the same or less than under the previous terms (30 percent on in-app purchases through the App Store/15 percent for small businesses), which Apple says developers can choose to continue.

Apple began testing the new capabilities last week in the iOS 17.4 beta, directing developers to the Apple Developer Support page to learn more.

Related:
The Main Driver of Apple’s Success Has Become Its Biggest Liability, The Wall Street Journal, 1/26/24
Apple Isn’t Ready to Release Its Grip on the App Store, Wired, 1/26/24
Spotify Calls Apple’s DMA Compliance Plan ‘Extortion’ and a ‘Complete and Total Farce’, TechCrunch, 1/26/24
Mozilla Says Apple’s New Browser Rules Are ‘as Painful as Possible’ for Firefox, The Verge, 1/26/24