EU App Payment Route: Check the 12-Month Lock

The fee is the easy line

You are choosing how your EU app will get paid, and the new Apple terms hold you to the payment options you select for 12 months before you can change them. Apple announced the terms on August 18, 2026, and they take effect on October 1, 2026, after developers sign.

The revised EU rules remove the upfront acquisition charge and the store services charge. For EU apps sold outside the App Store, the former per-install charge becomes a 5 percent Core Technology Commission that applies to digital transactions. The new model uses one rate card, with 26, 20, 15, and 5 percent rates depending on distribution and payment handling.

Treat the fee as one line in a ledger that also includes support, refunds, tax, currency, and the lock-in period. A route can look cheap on the commission and still cost you margin later.

If you have not incorporated yet, do not let the payment choice wait for legal paperwork. Choose the route you can operate now, and note what changes when the entity exists. A small app can survive a plain checkout, but it can also be slowed by a checkout that assumes a finance team.

The lock is the real decision

It asks you to plan for the period before you can change your mind. You are choosing a support queue, a refund path, a tax question, and a switching cost.

For App Store apps using Apple In-App Purchase, the commission is 26 percent. Qualifying Small Business Program, Mini Apps Partner Program, and Video Partner Program developers pay 15 percent, as do auto-renewing subscriptions after the first year. Alternative in-app payment processing is 20 percent, and web link-out purchases are 15 percent, with both reduced to 10 percent for qualifying programmes. Apps that let buyers pay through a separate checkout or leave to a website must add a parental gate for under-18 users.

A checkout that is easy for the customer can be hard for you. A refund is a workflow: you need a path for the question, the money back, and the note you send when it happens. Currency conversion is a question of who bears the loss and where the money lands. Tax handling is a question of who files, who invoices, and who answers when the customer asks. If the answer is you, the fee is only part of the cost.

Run the checks before you sign

Use this checklist before you sign, not after the refund. Each item is a small test you can run in a minute, and it forces the route to show its real cost.

• Net margin: subtract the applicable commission from your planned price and confirm the remainder covers hosting, support, and refunds.
• Support burden: write the refund, chargeback, and customer-question path you would actually answer, and count the tools you need.
• Tax and currency: note who handles tax, invoicing, and currency conversion, and whether you must keep a separate ledger.
• Lock-in: mark the date you would sign, then confirm you can live with the same payment options for the required period.
• Switching cost: list the code, contracts, support macros, and customer notices you would change if the route stops working.

Run the checklist with the price you actually plan to charge, not the price you hope to charge. If the margin is thin, the support burden will feel heavier. If the tax answer is unclear, write it down before you sign.

The route you can afford is the route you can operate when a customer asks for a refund.

If the route fails, stop and reprice, change the support plan, or pick a different route.