Apple's New 15% External Link Tax: A 'Generous' Way to Keep Your Money
After years of wrestling with regulators, Apple has finally revealed its master plan to tax your wallet even when you're not using the App Store. It seems the Cupertino giant simply cannot let a single cent slip through the cracks of its walled garden.
The tech giant is proposing a 15% commission on purchases made via external links inside iOS apps, a move clearly designed to keep their golden goose laying eggs. While standard apps get hit with this 15% rate, the company is offering a tiered system: small businesses get a 5% rate, and select partners in media or mini-app programs get a 10% cut. Even better, renewals for subscriptions are dropping to 10%, which almost feels like a bargain if you forget that they didn't really do anything for that transaction in the first place.
This structure follows a long, exhausting legal saga with Epic Games, where Apple fought tooth and nail to maintain its grip on in-app payments. The company claims these fees are essential to recover investments made into the tools and technologies that make iOS possible, as if their multi-trillion dollar valuation wasn't enough of a return on investment. They even pointed to Google Play's pricing as a benchmark, seemingly desperate to prove that their form of protectionism is perfectly standard.
Ultimately, this feels less like a concession and more like a tactical retreat that still leaves Apple holding the keys to the kingdom. By forcing developers to jump through hoops just to offer a different payment method, the ecosystem remains effectively closed under the guise of an open policy, proving that for Cupertino, every exit door is just another opportunity for a toll booth.
Source: TechCrunch
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