Summary

Apple and the European Commission reached an agreement on App Store business terms under the DMA, with Apple conceding remarkably little: the main commission drops only from 30% to 26% for App Store apps using Apple's own payment system. A 5% Core Technology Commission applies to all apps, including those distributed outside the App Store, validating Apple's long-contested CTC. Gruber argues this outcome represents a near-total victory for Apple and a capitulation by the EC, aided by the Commission's new, more moderate leadership replacing the combative Vestager and Breton. Ben Thompson's analysis reveals Apple likely breaks even on payment processing under the new terms, meaning the EC effectively ruled Apple should make no profit from processing payments. Paradoxically, the DMA's sprawling complexity worked in Apple's favor — a simpler law targeting only commission rates would almost certainly have forced Apple to a 15-20% cap, not 26%.

Key Insight

The DMA's own complexity became Apple's greatest weapon — by sprawling across distribution, payments, and APIs rather than simply capping commission rates, the law gave Apple room to negotiate a framework that preserved nearly all of its 30% take.

Spicy Quotes (click to share)

• 5

  This is a near-total victory for Apple.

• 7

  I could collect a lot of claim chowder from people who told me that Apple's CTC was never going to pass muster.

• 6

  I don't think Epic understands that the Commission has accepted these terms, and they're a result of negotiations. It's over.

• 7

  Thanks to the DMA's sprawling scope, complexity, and overreach, Apple came out of this conceding only 4 percent of the App Store's 30 percent commission, and no reduction at all to the 15 percent for subscriptions after the first year.

• 5

  Don't take my word that this agreement is a sweeping victory for Apple — with the company conceding only the reduction from 30 to 26 percent for App Store payments — and a capitulation by the EC.

• 5

  If that had been the case, there's no way the rate would have been 26 percent. It almost certainly would have been 20 percent at the most, perhaps something more like 15 percent.

Tone

triumphant, sardonic, analytical