Apple will allow iOS developers located in the European Union to distribute apps from the web, rather than through its App Store.
The option, which it says will be available to qualified developers "later this spring," is offered in response to the bloc's Digital Markets Act (DMA), which imposes obligations on how Apple can operate the App Store and iOS, which They are designated as “core platform services” under the law.
"Web Distribution, available in a software update later this spring, will allow authorized developers to distribute their iOS apps to EU users directly from a website that the developer owns and operates," he writes. "Apple will provide access to APIs that will make it easier to distribute developer applications from the web, integrate with system functionality, backup and restore user applications, and more."
Apps offered through Apple's web delivery APIs will need to comply with the notarization requirements it previously established, which it says are necessary to "protect the integrity of the platform." Additionally, they can only be installed from a website domain that the developer has registered with Apple, in App Store Connect.
iOS users will also need to approve the developer to install apps from their site through their iPhone settings. They will also see a “system sheet,” with information that developers must submit to Apple for review, including the app name, developer name, app description, screenshots, and app age rating. system.
Apple's initial proposal for DMA compliance did not allow web-based application distribution. However, it has faced an avalanche of outrage from developers who denounce a narrow and self-serving interpretation of the rules that the bloc's lawmakers intend to open up digital markets blocked by the market power of a handful of intermediary "gatekeepers." from Internet.
The European Commission has also signaled that it is watching Apple closely, and it is notable that a few days after canceling one of its most scathing critics, Apple's developer account Epic Games, Apple backed down and reinstated the account.
Apple made some other changes to its DMA compliance offering last week, reducing certain criteria it had said it would apply to developers seeking to take on DMA rights. But today's announcements seem more substantial, as Apple also removed a restriction on alternative app marketplaces that meant they had to offer a catalog of apps from other developers.
Now, effective immediately, Apple says that alternative app marketplaces can choose to offer only their own apps.
In another change Apple announced today, which also takes effect immediately, it will remove the requirement for developers who want to direct users to their own websites to purchase Digital products Use your own design templates to link to the website to make purchases.
It says this template is now optional and developers can choose how to design promotions, discounts and other in-app offers when directing users to complete a transaction on their own website.
With a note to developers About the changes, Apple writes: "We are providing more flexibility to developers who distribute apps in the European Union (EU), including introducing a new way to distribute apps directly from a developer's website."
The changes require developers to agree to Apple's new terms, which means signing up to a revised fee structure that includes a "core technology" fee, charged at €0,50 for every first annual installation over a million in the US. last 12 months (regardless of where the applications are distributed from).
Apple maintains that this fee reflects the value it offers developers, through “continued investments in tools, technologies and services that allow them to create and share innovative applications with users around the world.”
Criteria for web distribution of iOS applications
The changes mean that qualified iOS developers will soon be able to offer an alternative app store made up of their own products and distributed from their own website, something that Epic Games has been anticipating – but Apple is still applying some additional criteria, in addition to requiring developers to sign up to its new terms and conditions (and pay the basic technology fee).
In addition to requiring developers to be incorporated, domiciled and/or registered in the EU (or have a subsidiary legal entity incorporated, domiciled or registered in the EU listed on App Store Connect), Apple's eligibility criteria for distribution web developers require having been what it calls “a member in good standing” in its developer program for two continuous years or more; and having an app that had over a million annual first installs on iOS in the EU in the previous year.
It also stipulates that developers must also agree to a variety of behavioral promises, including a commitment to respond to communications from them, especially in relation to "any fraudulent, malicious or illegal behavior, or anything else that Apple believes affects security." or user privacy”, publish transparent data collection policies and offer users control over how their data is collected and used, following the applicable laws of the jurisdictions where they operate. To do this, Apple gives examples from the EU Digital Services Act (DSA), the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and consumer protection laws. It also includes the responsibility of handling government and other requests to remove app listings.
Apple's explicit requirement that developers follow other EU laws seems particularly interesting in this context. The bloc's lawmakers can't exactly complain about that condition, so it offers a path for Apple to police developer access to web distribution of iOS apps by applying a privacy and consumer rights lens to third-party companies.
Last year, some reports suggested that ad tech giant Meta was planning to launch its own alternative app store on iOS and distribute apps to users in the EU via Facebook ads, using the download requirement in the DMA to bypass Apple's App Store . And while Apple's initial DMA compliance proposal seemed too limited to allow for such a scenario, under the revised conditions Apple has announced, the Meta concept of iOS apps distributed through its own ad network seems possible.
However, there are one, or several, major potential sticking points: Meta's compliance with the GPRD, DSA and EU consumer protection law is in doubt. In fact, it has been found to have violated the GPRD several times since the law began to be enforced in 2018, incurring a series of fines and corrective orders since then. While its current attempt to force EU users to consent to tracking is being challenged through the GPRD and consumer protection complaints. The EU is also asking questions about the mechanism's compliance with the DSA, in addition to other areas of concern (such as child safety).
Therefore, Apple may have many reasons to deny web distribution to Meta or, indeed, any other business model that relies on surveillance without consent of users and has a long history of run-ins with privacy laws. EU privacy.
