Apple upgrades DMA changes to help indie developers

When Apple first introduced its App Store changes to comply with the EU's Digital Markets Act (DMA), there was one aspect that really angered developers, and that was the Central Technology Fee. The celebration of 1 million app installs would turn into a bankruptcy file for people developing free apps as a hobby, with the yearly fee of 0.50 € for each app install after that mark subjecting them to at least 50,000 euros in all of yearly fees, which almost all hobby devs can't afford at all without forcing users to pay for the apps (which they don't want to do). Now, that has changed, with two changes.

The first just gets rid of all fees for hobbyists making (completely: this includes affiliate links and other external payment) no money from their apps. The exemption is for the developer and not the apps themselves, and hobbyists need to do a yearly declaration that they aren't gaining money in any way.

Second, for those who are subject to the fee, there will be a ramp-up for the three years after the developer is first put in the reaches of the fee, as follows: no fee for those with revenue under 10 million euros globally, a fee that can only reach 1 million euros for those between 10 and 50 million global revenue, and finally the plain fee for developers earning more than 50 million. The ramp-up only applies for those who first reach 1 million installs, so if a developer's app installs go over a million but then dip below the threshold and reach it again, they won't get the ramp up the second time. The second adjustment will avoid the fee going to apps which generate lots of revenue but not a lot of profit, and will give developers subject to the fee ample time to adjust their business to make sure they would be able to pay the CTF.

If you're wondering why Apple worried developers to death about impending bankruptcy for two months before this change, Apple says that at the time of the first implementation of the fee, Apple didn't know how to make it fair enough at first and so tried to figure things out (after all, Apple had a strict deadline of March 7 at that time to comply with the DMA, and the change was implemented only two days ahead of it). Anyway, round of applause to Apple for stopping developers from filing for bankruptcy en masse!

By Leo