According to AppleInsider, a coalition of 20 app developers and consumer groups petitioned the European Commission on Tuesday, arguing Apple’s revised fee structure continues to disadvantage EU apps compared to U.S. rivals. The Coalition for App Fairness, which includes Epic Games, Spotify, Proton, and others, claims Apple is “flouting” EU law and hasn’t disclosed its fee terms for 2026. In July, Apple replaced its Core Technology Fee, which charged 27% of App Store earnings, with a new set of charges. These include a 2% Acquisition Fee on digital sales for up to six months after a user’s download and a variable Store Services Fee between 5% and 13%. The group’s statement, first seen by Reuters, calls the situation “untenable,” and notes that despite App Store rates falling by about 10%, EU developers are not passing those savings to users.
The fee shuffle isn’t fooling anyone
Here’s the thing: this isn’t really about the specific percentages. It’s about control. Apple had to dismantle its old system because of the Digital Markets Act (DMA), but the new patchwork of fees—Acquisition Fee, Store Services Fee, Commission—feels like a shell game to these developers. They’re basically saying, “You changed the labels on the boxes, but the total cost to do business in your walled garden is still punitive.” And they have a point about the lack of transparency for 2026. It’s hard to plan a business when the tolls on the only bridge in town could change arbitrarily in two years.
A coalition of the willing to fight
Look at who’s in this coalition: Spotify, Epic Games, Proton. These aren’t small startups. They’re well-funded companies that have been fighting Apple in courts and in the court of public opinion for years. This formal petition to the EU Commission is just the latest battlefield. They’re organized, and they’re not going away. For Apple, this is a nightmare scenario—a unified front of powerful app makers using the EU’s regulatory muscle as their weapon. The real question is, how much more can Apple bend before its entire App Store profit model in Europe breaks?
Where do the savings go?
Now, there’s a fascinating nugget in the report that often gets overlooked. It says that even with fees dropping roughly 10%, EU developers aren’t passing those savings to consumers. That’s a bad look for the developers in this argument, frankly. It undermines the “we’re doing this for the users” angle and makes it clear this is a pure business fight over margins. The users are just the battlefield. So while the developers have legitimate grievances about Apple’s power, this detail reveals their own profit motives are front and center, too.
What happens next?
So what does the European Commission do? They forced these changes with the DMA, and now a major group is saying the changes are insufficient and possibly illegal. The pressure is squarely on the regulators to enforce their own rules. If they side with the coalition, Apple could be forced into yet another redesign of its business model in its second-largest market. But if the EU decides Apple’s July tweaks were enough, this coalition will have to retreat. I think we’re about to see just how serious the EU is about taming Big Tech. This is a major test case.
