Apple cuts and simplifies EU app fees, but Epic says it's not enough

Fact-check index: 76/100 — Most core facts (fee percentages, October 2026 effective date, Commission's welcoming stance, the €500M April 2025 fine, and the Coalition for App Fairness quote) check out against the cited sources, but the Tim Sweeney 'unlawfully charging' quote could not be found in The Register piece and a couple of structural claims are only loosely supported.

• New EU App Store terms take effect 1 October 2026 — Confirmed by both Computerworld and The Register fetches.
• European Commission views the new terms as moving Apple toward DMA compliance — Computerworld: 'European regulators welcomed Apple's changes,' with monitoring of implementation to follow.
• Stats: 26%→15% in-app purchase commission, 5% outside-App-Store fee, 20% alternative in-app payment commission, 15% external purchase link fee — Matches figures pulled from both The Register and Computerworld (standard/reduced rates for IAP, alt payment processing, web links, and 5% Core Technology Commission).
• Apple folded tiered Core Technology Fee and separate download/store-service charges into flat percentage commissions — Computerworld describes a restructured tiered commission system and a still-separate 5% Core Technology Commission for outside distribution — not a single flat rate folding everything together, so the characterization is only loosely accurate.
• Apple widened which developers can run rival app marketplaces — Computerworld: Apple 'expanded the scope of eligibility to operate alternative app marketplaces.'
• Developers can link users to a payment destination of their choice rather than one fixed web link — Computerworld fetch found Apple now allows In-App Purchase alongside alternative payment options but did not confirm the 'destination of choice' framing.
• Epic Games called the new terms 'junk fees' that do 'nothing to open up the mobile app ecosystem to competition, as required by' the DMA — Matches The Register's headline ('junk') and its quoted Epic Newsroom statement on DMA link-out/competing-store requirements.
• Tim Sweeney said Apple is still 'unlawfully charging' developers for purchases made through outside links — Repeated fetches of the cited Register article found no Sweeney quote at all — only a corporate Epic Newsroom statement and a quote from BEUC's Sébastien Pant. This attribution could not be substantiated.
• Coalition for App Fairness said the new terms 'defeat the purpose of the DMA' — Exact match to Computerworld: 'Apple's new terms defeat the purpose of the DMA by keeping fees high and blocking true competition.'
• Commission can fine gatekeepers up to 10% of global turnover for DMA breaches — Accurate as general DMA knowledge, but not confirmed by either cited source in this article and not independently sourced/linked.
• Commission fined Apple €500 million in April 2025 for restricting steering — Confirmed directly via the Commission's decision page: 23 April 2025, €500 million, anti-steering violation.
• Apple is appealing that fine before the EU's General Court, per CNBC — The cited CNBC page could not be fetched (403 error) for direct verification, though an appeal is plausible and widely reported elsewhere.