OtaKitApple’s new EU App Store terms (1 October 2026), explained for app teams
On 1 October 2026 Apple replaces the Core Technology Fee with a 5% commission and resets EU rates: 26% for In-App Purchase, 20% for alternative payments, 15% for web link-outs. What it means for Capacitor and web-based apps.
On 18 August, Apple announced a new set of business terms for apps in the European Union, agreed with the European Commission. They take effect on 1 October 2026. Every developer distributing in the EU moves onto a single set of terms, the per-install Core Technology Fee is gone, and linking out to your own website for purchases gets a clearly lower rate.
This post covers what changed, what it means for a typical Capacitor or web-based app, and what to do before and after 1 October. It is not legal or tax advice; read Apple's updated terms before changing how you charge.
The new EU rates
From Apple's announcement:
| How the user pays | Standard rate | Reduced rate (eligible programs) |
|---|---|---|
| App Store app, Apple In-App Purchase | 26% | 15% |
| App Store app, alternative payment processor | 20% | 10% |
| App Store app, link-out to your website | 15% | 10% |
| App distributed outside the App Store (alternative marketplace or web) | 5% Core Technology Commission | 5% |
The reduced rates apply to the Small Business Program and a few partner programs. For In-App Purchase, auto-renewing subscriptions also drop to 15% after the first year.
What is removed:
- The Core Technology Fee, the per-install fee that hit apps with very large install counts. It becomes the 5% Core Technology Commission on digital transactions in apps distributed outside the App Store.
- The Initial Acquisition Fee and the Store Services Fee.
There are also age rules: users under 13 cannot access web purchase links, and users under 18 must pass a parental gate before alternative payments or web links.
What it means in practice
The big shift is that the web link-out is now the cheapest way to take payment inside an App Store app in the EU, at 15% versus 26% for In-App Purchase. Before, the stack of fees made most alternatives barely worth the engineering. Now the gap is large enough to test.
A few consequences for app teams:
- Subscriptions: a link-out to a web checkout (for example, Stripe) can leave you with meaningfully more revenue per EU subscriber. The trade-off is conversion: Apple Pay inside IAP is very low friction, and every extra screen loses buyers.
- Alternative distribution is simpler to evaluate, with one 5% commission instead of a per-install fee. For most consumer apps, the App Store's reach still wins.
- Physical goods and services are unaffected. They never used In-App Purchase.
What to do as a Capacitor team
- Accept the updated agreement. Apple published an updated Developer Program License Agreement with Attachment 14 for EU terms. Sign in to App Store Connect and accept it.
- Model the numbers per storefront. Compare 26% IAP against 15% link-out plus your payment processor's fee, and against a realistic drop in conversion. Test, do not assume.
- Build the link-out as a native-reviewed flow. The link-out entitlement, the external purchase screen and the parental gate are part of what App Review looks at. Ship the first version in a store build.
- Show it only where it applies. Decide per storefront and per user age. Your server should decide who sees which option, so you can change it without shipping code.
Where live updates fit, and where they do not. Adding a new way to pay is the kind of change Apple expects to review, so do not introduce it through an over-the-air update. Once the flow is approved, paywall copy, layout, plan cards and pricing display are ordinary web changes, and iterating on them quickly is where most of the revenue gains come from.
Iterate the paywall, not the binary
Most of the money in a pricing change is in the details: which plan is highlighted, how the annual discount is shown, where the web option sits, what the copy says. Each of those is a small web change. Waiting days for review to test each one means you run a handful of experiments a quarter.
With OtaKit, a Capacitor app gets those changes the same day. Release to a staging channel, check on your own devices, then release to production, or to a slice of users first with a staged rollout. If a variant underperforms, roll back. For the rules on what can change over the air, see Apple guideline 2.5.2 explained.
The US has its own, separate situation after the Epic ruling. We cover both markets, and how to wire Stripe into a Capacitor app, in can a Capacitor app use Stripe?