Apple recently announced changes to its App Store policies in Europe to comply with the EU's Digital Markets Act. The new rules will allow sideloading and alternative app stores in Europe, as well as third-party payment systems. This has drawn mixed reactions from companies and developers who have long criticised Apple's walled-garden approach. Mozilla calls the changes disappointing For browsers like Firefox, Apple will allow the use of alternative rendering engines besides WebKit on iOS. However, Mozilla says this change is extremely disappointing because it is limited to the EU. "We are still reviewing the technical details but are extremely disappointed with Apple’s proposed plan to restrict the newly-announced BrowserEngineKit to EU-specific apps," Mozilla spokesperson Damiano DeMonte told The Verge. "The effect of this would be to force an independent browser like Firefox to build and maintain two separate browser implementations — a burden Apple themselves will not have to bear." Mozilla argues that having to maintain an EU-only version of Firefox on iOS creates unnecessary complexity. "Apple’s proposals fail to give consumers viable choices by making it as painful as possible for others to provide competitive alternatives to Safari," DeMonte added. "This is another example of Apple creating barriers to prevent true browser competition on iOS." Spotify calls the changes a "total farce" that hurts developers Music streaming service Spotify had harsh words for Apple's plan. In a post on its website, Spotify said "As Apple has just shown the world, they don’t think the rules apply to them. Apple is nothing if not consistent. While they have behaved badly for years, this takes the level of arrogance to an entirely new place." Spotify took particular issue with the new €0.50 fee Apple will charge developers for each annual install after 1 million downloads. "From our read of Apple’s proposal, a developer would have to pay this fee even if a user downloaded the app, never used it and forgot to delete it," Spotify wrote. The post called the changes a "complete and total farce" and extortion. Spotify CEO Daniel Ek also stated with a post on X that the company cannot afford the new fees if it wants to be profitable. Epic Games CEO Tim Sweeney says the changes are more "malicious compliance" Tim Sweeney, the CEO of Epic Games and a vocal Apple critic, did not mince words in his reaction on X (formerly Twitter). He called the update "a new instance of Malicious Compliance" and "hot garbage." Sweeney claimed Apple is forcing developers into an "illegal anticompetitive scheme rife with new Junk Fees on downloads and new Apple taxes on payments they don’t process." He also took issue with Apple's ability to "choose which stores are allowed to compete" and potentially block stores like Epic's. However, Sweeney said Epic still aims to launch its store on iOS and Android to become the "#1 multi-platform software store. on the foundation of payment competition, 0%-12% fees, and exclusive games like Fortnite." Gas app founder shows high fees under new terms Nikita Bier, founder of the Gas app acquired by Discord, crunched the numbers to show how much Apple would take under the new terms. "Under the App Store's new fee structure for Europe, if you make $10 million in sales, Apple's cut is $6.2 million annually," Bier tweeted. "Assuming you have no operating costs or salaries, your take home amount: $2 million after tax—or 20% of your sales. I will never launch an app in Europe." Basecamp co-founder says fees discourage big apps from alternative stores Basecamp co-founder David Heinemeier Hansson wrote the fees are "explicitly designed to ensure that no second-party app store ever takes off." He gave the example of Meta's Instagram app with 250 million EU users being charged $135 million per year by Apple to be in an alternative store. "This poison pill is therefore explicitly designed to ensure that no second-party app store ever takes off. Without any of the big apps, there will be no draw, and there’ll be no stores. All of the EU’s efforts to create competition in the digital markets will be for nothing," Hansson wrote. The reactions show that while Apple's policy changes are a step towards more openness, some developers believe they still reinforce the App Store's competitive advantage. With new fees and limitations, iOS may remain challenging terrain for alternative stores and payment systems despite the new rules.
