Developers interested in distributing iOS apps on their websites also have to cross a high bar. This includes being registered or incorporated in the EU, being a member of “good standing in the Apple Developer Program for two continuous years or more,” and having an app that received “more than one million first annual installs on iOS in the EU in the prior calendar year.”
Apple will also vet the apps, which must receive official “notarization” from the company, before they can distributed on third-party platforms.
Developers must pay a 17% or 10% commission, and fork over “€0.50 for each first annual install” if their app crosses one million total installs over a 12-month period.
Critics have since slammed the new fee structure, calling it anticompetitive. “This is extortion, plain and simple,” Spotify said in January. “For any developer wondering if this might work for you, you need to have less than a million customers and essentially sign up for not growing in the long run.”
If Apple can revoke or have whatever last word on what these third-party stores can publish then it’s just a walled garden with more steps involved, especially if third party stores need to pay a commission while doing all the hard work.
I hope EU tear them a new one.