Mike Wuerthele
If a new report is correct, Apple still plans on doing some form of iPhone app review and charge developers for sideloaded apps in the European Union, but the details aren't fully clear.
A report on Wednesday morning has laid out what may be Apple's plan to address the EU's requirements in the Digital Markets Act (DMA) mandating third-party app stores. Citing "people familiar with the company's plans", the Wall Street Journal says that software review will still take place, and there will be fees charged.
What is not spelled out in the report, are details about both the expected fees and how a software review would be executed. In the US, Apple is planning to levy a 27% fee on first-year subscriptions, and a 12% fee on following years if users are prompted through the app to buy a subscription outside of the App Store.
The EU's DMA doesn't appear to explicitly disallow fees for side loading and alternative app stores. What's not yet clear is how the EU will respond to Apple's filing that it must make on the matter, detailing the company's response to terms in the DMA.
The report also addresses what other big tech companies are preparing in response to Apple being forced to allow sideloaded apps. Meta is said to be considering a system that will allow users to download apps directly from Facebook advertisements.
Spotify's plan appears to be simpler. The music streamer will just provide apps on a download page on its website.
The Digital Markets Act (DMA) of the European Union is a series of regulations aimed at big tech "gatekeepers." Any large company with a monthly total of 45 million active users in Europe and at least 75 billion euros ($80 billion) in market capitalization is labeled a "gatekeeper."
Currently, there are six companies labeled as gatekeepers, including Apple, Amazon, Google, Meta, Microsoft, and TikTok's parent company, Bytedance.
These laws aim to ensure fair competition by restricting the priority a company can give its own first-party services. Gatekeepers are expected to comply with the regulations by March 7. Failure to comply with the DMA rules could trigger an EU investigation, which might lead to "behavioral or structural remedies."
According to the DMA, companies that act as gatekeepers must ensure fair competition by providing equal opportunities to their competitors' products and services. This means that Apple, for instance, would have to allow third-party app stores and side-loading apps on iPhone. Additionally, Apple would be obliged to permit developers to use third-party payment systems instead of mandatorily using the one provided by Apple.
In November, Apple drafted an appeal against the DMA, arguing that it should not be required to allow alternative app marketplaces on its devices.
The Cupertino-based tech giant later accused the European Union of incorrectly assessing how many app stores it had — clarifying that it has five app stores, not one.
In September, Apple received a temporary exemption from the DMA. The company claimed that its messaging service, iMessage, was not large enough to qualify as a gatekeeper service. EU regulators are now investigating whether the DMA applies to iMessage or not.
William Gallagher
Marko Zivkovic
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16 Comments
Apple making frenemies in the developer community and, at the same time, trying to encourage those developers to create Vision Pro apps. Yeah, that's a plan.
This is so stupid. Let's not stop at tech companies. Require all companies to accept alternative forms of payment. I would like to go to the store and pay with a bushel of bananas. I don't want to use their payment method of currency or card.
Sideloading is not freeloading! Every developer is going to pay to develop and maintain iOS
App signatures.
Regardless of where an app came from, if it doesn't have an approved signature certificate from Apple, it won't run.
I'm good with that.
What this move by Apple does is expose just how friggin’ stupid those in the EU who make these laws are.
In all of their supposed “consultations” about side loading did it not occur to anyone what to do about various “what ifs” that might come up? Like, I don’t know, does Apple (or Google) have the right to still collect a fee or do they have the right to review Apps that aren’t on their stores?
Of course they’ll amend the DMA to deal with these issues, but it makes them look like idiots for having missed something so obvious in the first place.
Makes you wonder if they had ANY discussions before forcing side loading onto Apple.