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EU Apple Technology

Apple To Open App Store To Competitors in EU As It Seeks To Avoid Fines (ft.com) 25

Apple will allow developers in the European Union to distribute iOS apps outside its App Store, the company said Thursday in a bid to avoid escalating fines from Brussels regulators. The policy change came on the deadline for Apple to comply with EU rules or face new financial penalties that can reach up to 5% of average daily worldwide revenue.

The $3 trillion iPhone maker has been negotiating with the European Commission for two months after receiving a $585 million fine for breaching the EU's Digital Markets Act. The landmark legislation targets the power of Big Tech companies and requires Apple to open its mobile ecosystem to competitors.

The second change, set to go into effect in January 2026, would replace the current "core technology fee" model -- a separate charge imposed on developers -- with a commission-based structure.

Apple To Open App Store To Competitors in EU As It Seeks To Avoid Fines

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  • Just add the scary side loading warning. Set some global flag that side loading was used. Include that in the standard telemetry. That might help spot malware more quickly, noting statistically significant difference between clean and side loaded systems.
  • Sounds like Apple is just trying to find another way to sidestep a judicial order to me. Apple shouldn't have any right to charge a core technology fee or a commission on sales that they aren't involved in.

    • Developers already paid for the cost of the devices, the operating system, and the libraries that are part of that operating system, as did users.
    • The SDK itself consists of headers and symbol tables, which likely aren't protected by copyright per se (see also Google v. Oracle, SCO v IBM, etc.) and th
  • of people side-loading predatory stuff and then expecting Apple to take responsibility. Then they'll all get angry when Apple says "you opted for sideloading, we got nuthin to do with this, we never touched your money or saw your account info. good luck getting any support or reimbursement from the app itself. Their corporate headquarters is in North Korea"

    Everyone will blame Apple anyways. It'll be a PR nightmare. Not that I have much sympathy for Apple. But it'll just be another case of leopards-eatin
    • Android has had sideloading for decades, and none of that happens.

      • There are approximately a trillion articles out there dissecting the issues with sideloading.
        • Not saying bad things never happen but I side loaded the hell out of my android phone with lots of nice free open source software but I get it from a popular known good & safe repository and never had a problem, even Google's malware picks the apps up and recognizes them as safe, just dont download apps from strange & spooky websites and you'll be okay
  • must report external transactions that apple takes zero part of?

    Games that apple does not host don't cost apple more then other apps.

    Why should netflix pay apple an cut of the sub fees when apple does not host or make any netflix content.

  • They still want to take a slice of EVERYBODY'S pie, this is why I won't buy another Apple product, when my current iphone dies I am going to look into an android phone that is not tied to google hopefully there is one that works in the USA
  • Notarizing macOS software just need the dev fee per year.
    That should be all that is needed to side load apps and the setting should allow app store and Notarized apps by default.

    Also have an setting for full side loading with no Notarizing needed.

  • by cstacy ( 534252 ) on Thursday June 26, 2025 @04:55PM (#65478646)

    But the sign said "All You Can Eat" !

    "Yes. That's all you can eat."

  • Is it like Android where you can just load any app you want or does Apple still get to say no if your app does something Apple doesn't approve of?

One can search the brain with a microscope and not find the mind, and can search the stars with a telescope and not find God. -- J. Gustav White

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