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> Speaking to reporters Thursday night, though, Epic founder and CEO Tim Sweeney said he believes those should be “super super minor fees,” on the order of “ten
by Someone 10mo ago
> Speaking to reporters Thursday night, though, Epic founder and CEO Tim Sweeney said he believes those should be “super super minor fees,” on the order of “tens or hundreds of dollars” every time an iOS app update goes through Apple for review. That should be more than enough to compensate the employees reviewing the apps to make sure outside payment links are not scams
I would think making sure outside payment links aren’t scams will be more expensive than that because checking that once isn’t sufficient. Scammers will update the target of such links, so you can’t just check this at app submission time. You also will have to check from around the world, from different IP address ranges, outside California business hours, etc, because scammer are smart enough to use such info to decide whether to show their scammy page.
Also, even if it becomes ‘only’ hundreds of dollars, I guess only large companies will be able to afford providing an option for outside payments.
- ihuman 10mo agoWouldn't that incentivize smaller developers not to update their apps unless absolutely necessary?
- mikkupikku 10mo agoI don't believe iOS app reviewers actually do any of that, even if on paper they do.
- liuliu 10mo agoThey don't need to check outside payment links, until recently (I doubt they do though).
- onion2k 10mo agoThey had to check that app authors hadn't added any.
- makeitdouble 10mo agoThey ferociously check everything that goes out of an app. If you have a hint of a payment button 15 clicked after leaving your support page through the site logo link your app would get immediately flagged for removal unless you deal with it within week or two give to you.
- lapcat 10mo ago> I would think making sure outside payment links aren’t scams will be more expensive than that because checking that once isn’t sufficient. According to the ruling on page 42, "(c) Apple should receive no commission for the security and privacy features it offers to external links, and its calculation of its necessary costs for external links should not include the cost associated with the security and privacy features it offers with its IAP"
- nomel 10mo ago> Apple should receive no commission for the security and privacy features it offers to external links I'm not versed in legalese, so maybe I misunderstand. Isn't it reasonable that Apple receives money for a service they provide, that costs money to run?
- lapcat 10mo agoA service to whom? Protecting users is a service to users, not to developers. This is a selling point of iPhone, and thus Apple receives money from users when they pay for the iPhone. Think about it this way: totally free apps with no IAP get reviewed by Apple too, and there's no charge to the developer except the $99 Apple Developer Program membership fee, which Epic already pays too.
- someguyiguess 10mo agoProtecting users is absolutely in the best interest of developers.
- lapcat 10mo agoForcing developers to go through Apple's arbitrary, capricious, slow review process is absolutely not in the best interest of developers.
- cyberax 10mo ago> Think about it this way: totally free apps with no IAP get reviewed by Apple too, and there's no charge to the developer except the $99 Apple Developer Program membership fee Yearly fee. And about $500 a year in hardware depreciation, because you can reasonably develop for Apple _only_ on Apple hardware. This is _way_ more than Microsoft has ever charged, btw.
- ffsm8 10mo ago> I would think making sure outside payment links aren’t scams will be more expensive than that because checking that once isn’t sufficient. Ignoring the fact Apple isn't doing that anyway right now as others have pointed out: There are multiple ways to make sure of that without it costing any significant money, eg hashing all scripts that are served on the link and making sure they're the same since review. Not that they'd ever do the review to begin with, so the hashing won't be done either, but it's something that could be done on iOS/ipados. And if you consider that infeasible, you might want to check out current CSP best practices, you might be surprised
- madeofpalk 10mo agoBut Apple does not currently constantly check apps for changing links. I see no change here.
- johnnyanmac 10mo agoYeah it doesn't make sense. If there's a scam, users will report it. You don't need to check every payment processor with a fine toothed comb.
- GeekyBear 10mo ago> CEO Tim Sweeney said he believes those should be “super super minor fees” He seems to be ignoring the part of the ruling finding that Apple is entitled to "some compensation" for the use of its intellectual property. > The appeals court recommends that the district court calculate a commission that is based on the costs that are necessary for its coordination of external links for linked-out purchases, along with "some compensation" for the use of its intellectual property. Costs should not include commission for security and privacy. https://www.macrumors.com/2025/12/11/apple-app-store-fees-external-payment-links/ https://www.macrumors.com/2025/12/11/apple-app-store-fees-ex... Apple wanted 27% and Epic thinks it should be 0%. The lower court will have to pick a number in between the two.
- an0malous 10mo agoMaybe next they can decide what Epic’s 12% fee for their own marketplace should be
- jack_tripper 10mo agoI get your point, but looking at it at a glance without any other context, 12% feels like a pretty reasonable amount IMHO. Like, if all major marketplaces only charge 12% from the get-go, we probably would have had much less fuss and lawsuits over this. This issue was always the disproportionate size of the fee, not the fact that they charge a fee.
- T-A 10mo ago> I guess only large companies will be able to afford providing an option for outside payments https://store.epicgames.com/en-US/news/introducing-epic-web-shops https://store.epicgames.com/en-US/news/introducing-epic-web-...
- amelius 10mo agoApple can just do it like credit card companies: chargebacks. Plus kick offenders out of the store. No need to check anything in advance.
- ajross 10mo ago> I would think making sure outside payment links aren’t scams will be more expensive than that You really think that the aggregate cost of fraud mitigation in the app store is 30% of revenue? That seems laughable, the credit card industry as a whole does far, far better than that with far less ability to audit and control transaction use.
- Krasnol 10mo agoSpreading FUD as a marketing move will surely come free with this. It works just too well with Apple.
- cyberax 10mo ago> I would think making sure outside payment links aren’t scams will be more expensive On average, Apple spends less than a minute on app reviews for new versions.
- jdprgm 10mo agoHundreds of dollars just to push an app update would be devastating for many solo developers.
- oblio 10mo agoMaybe it wouldn't hurt to have rarer and more thoughtful releases. Or we end up with this modern disease where the OS wants to update itself, the browser needs to update itself, Acrobat wants to update itself, etc, etc, all the time.
- zarzavat 10mo agoThis isn't about whether Apple allows outside payment links or not. It's about whether Apple takes a percentage cut from outside payments. Is Apple actually checking outside payments for scams outside of review times? Do they check non-payment links for scams outside of review times? How often? The point is that they should only be able to charge a fee for work they are truly doing, and it shouldn't be retaliatory.
- Terretta 10mo agoEpic founder and CEO Tim Sweeney said he believes those should be “super super minor fees,” on the order of “tens or hundreds of dollars” every time an iOS app update goes through Apple for review. That should be more than enough to compensate the employees reviewing the apps to make sure outside payment links are not scams and lead to a system of “normal fees for normal businesses that sell normal things to normal customers,” Sweeney said. Tens to hundreds every time an app goes through review is "super supor minor"... This is how you know Epic has the backs of all the indie devs who fret about $100/year dev membership.