Apple to court: 15% on purchases that leave the App Store

The rules that shaped how your app makes money and how people find it just moved. Apple named a number for purchases that leave its checkout. A judge forced Google to stop hiding the door to rival stores. And a small player from Portugal walked through that door first. Let me catch you up on what changed and what to do about it.

The deep cut

• The middleman fee has a ceiling now. Apple's 15% external cut and Google's 20% link-out rate set the real floor for your pricing math.
• Court pressure sets your take rate, not the platform. Apple admitted its "necessary costs" are near zero, so Epic is fighting the 15%.
• A rival store is only a channel if users can find it. Judge Donato made Google fix search and swap "view" for "install" in a week.

The number Apple didn't want to say

Apple asked the Supreme Court to let it stall. The Court said no, so Apple put a number in a court filing: 15% on purchases made through external links in standard apps. Small businesses pay 5%. Video, News, and Mini Apps programs pay 10%, and so do subscription renewals.

That is a real drop from the 27% Apple charged before, the fee that got it ruled in contempt. For your team, this is the new math on any "just send them to the web" plan. Sending a buyer out of the App Store still costs you a cut. Plan your prices around 15%, not zero.

Why Epic isn't celebrating

The catch sits inside Apple's own filing. Apple told the court its "necessary costs" to allow external purchases would be "essentially zero", then argued it should still collect "at least some compensation." Epic called the fees "far outside of the bounds" of what the court allowed and has about 60 days to fight back with expert witnesses.

So treat 15% as a proposal, not a settled rate. The number that survives court could be lower. Do not rebuild your whole pricing model around a figure that two sides are still arguing over. Build a plan that works at 15% and gets better if the fee drops.

The door Google kept locked

Google was ordered to carry rival stores inside Play and hand them its full app catalog. It did the minimum. Epic's lawyer ran a live demo in court, and it did not go well for Google. Search "store for apps" and you got Walmart. Judge Donato was blunt: "That is not acceptable, that has to be fixed."

The friction was in the details. Users had to tap "view" before "install." Search for a rival store and Google showed a warning banner instead of a normal result. Donato ordered both fixed, told Google to swap "view" for "install," and gave the company one week. The lesson for your own funnel: a channel that takes extra taps to reach is barely a channel.

The first store through the gap

Aptoide became the first rival store back on Google Play in the US, after more than a decade of being sideload-only. It carries 40,000 apps for 25 million monthly users, and the US is its biggest market. Before this, reaching those users meant convincing them to sideload. Now they install it like any other app.

Aptoide won't be alone. The Verge expects Epic, Amazon, Samsung, and even a Microsoft Xbox mobile store to follow. Payment options are widening too. Google Play added Venmo, joining PayPal and Cash App, against a backdrop of $167 billion in app spend last year. More stores and more ways to pay mean more places your app can live, if you're set up to be there.

Three questions for your team

• If Apple's cut lands at 15% and Google's at 20%, does our web checkout still beat in-app purchase after we count refunds and support? Run the real numbers before we promise anyone savings.
• Which alternative stores, Aptoide today and Epic or Amazon next, are worth a listing, and who owns getting us in when they open in our markets?
• Our own install and checkout flows: how many taps stand between "interested" and "paid," and which ones have no purpose, the way Donato said Google's did?