Getting started as an alternative app marketplace in the European Union

iOS and iPadOS include capabilities that let marketplace developers build and distribute marketplace apps as part of an alternative app marketplace in the EU. These apps can install and support software on devices, access data across a catalog of apps, manage users’ purchases and subscriptions, and more. Marketplace apps must meet Notarization requirements, like all iOS and iPadOS apps, and can only be installed from the marketplace developer’s website. These capabilities are available to EU users on devices running a minimum of iOS 17.4 or iPadOS 18.

Operating an alternative app marketplace requires significant responsibility and oversight of the user experience, including content guidelines and moderation processes, anti-fraud measures to prevent scams, transparent data collection policies, and the ability to manage payment disputes and refunds. To uphold user experience standards, Apple will authorize marketplace developers through the Alternative App Marketplace Entitlement (EU) to distribute a dedicated marketplace iOS and/or iPadOS app after meeting specific criteria and committing to ongoing requirements that help protect users and developers.

Apple will provide authorized marketplace developers access to new app marketplace technologies that allow them to receive apps from other Apple Developer Program members securely, let users download and install their marketplace iOS and/or iPadOS apps from their marketplace developer’s website, integrate with system functionality, backup and restore users’ apps, and more.

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Requesting the entitlement

If you’re interested in becoming a marketplace developer in the EU, the Account Holder of your Apple Developer Program membership will first need to agree to the Alternative Terms Addendum for Apps in the EU. Once they’ve agreed, they can submit a request for the entitlement.

To qualify for the entitlement, you must:

• Be enrolled in the Apple Developer Program as an organization incorporated, domiciled, and or registered in the EU (or have a subsidiary legal entity incorporated, domiciled, and or registered in the EU that’s listed in App Store Connect). The location associated with your legal entity is listed in your Apple Developer account.
• Agree to build an app whose primary purpose is discovery and distribution of other notarized apps.
• If your marketplace distributes other developer’s apps, agree to provide and publish terms, including those pertaining to content and business model, for any apps you will distribute, and accept apps that meet those terms.
• Agree to publish transparent data collection policies and offer users control over how their data is collected and used.
• Agree to follow applicable laws of the jurisdictions where you operate (for example, the Digital Services Act, the General Data Protection Regulation, consumer protection laws).
• Agree to be responsible for handling governmental and other requests to take down listings of apps in your alternative app marketplace.
• Agree to engage in ongoing monitoring and detection of fraudulent, malicious, or illegal apps, activity in apps, or developers in your alternative app marketplace.
• Agree to not distribute any apps that infringe the intellectual property of others, including Apple.
• Agree to implement a mechanism for reviewing other developer’s apps for intellectual property infringement prior to distributing them through your alternative app marketplace.
• Agree to provide a process to handle intellectual property disputes related to your alternative app marketplace or apps in your alternative app marketplace.
• Do either of the following: (1) Provide Apple a stand-by letter of credit in the amount of €1,000,000 from a financial institution that’s at least A-rated or equivalent by S&P, Fitch, or Moody’s, and maintain that standby letter of credit as long as your alternative app marketplace is in operation; or (2) be a member of good standing in the Apple Developer Program for two continuous years or more, and have an app that had more than one million first annual installs on iOS and/or iPadOS in the EU in the prior calendar year.

If your entitlement request is approved and the entitlement is assigned to your developer account, you can start to build and test your marketplace components.

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Understanding payments, fees, and taxes

Core Technology Fee

The DMA requires Apple to support distribution and payment processing alternatives that are facilitated outside the App Store. To reflect the value Apple provides marketplace developers with ongoing investments in developer tools, technologies, and program services, Apple has introduced a Core Technology Fee.

• Marketplace developers will need to pay €0.50 for each first annual install of their marketplace app. First annual installs included in your Apple Developer Program membership can’t be used for marketplace apps.
• Marketplace developers and app developers that distribute on alternative marketplaces who are approved for the fee waiver are exempt from the fee.

Learn more about the Core Technology Fee

Fee waiver

Marketplace developers who are nonprofit organizations, accredited educational institutions, or government entities based in the EU and approved for a fee waiver are exempt from the Apple Developer Program annual membership fee and the Core Technology Fee. This applies to developers of marketplace apps and other apps.

Please note that marketplace developers approved for the fee waiver can only distribute apps from developers who have also been approved for the fee waiver.

Learn more about the fee waiver

Taxes

It will be your responsibility to collect, report, and remit any required tax to the appropriate tax authorities for transactions that take place using your alternative app marketplace.

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Supporting developers and users

If you use this entitlement, it will be your responsibility to protect developers and users by publishing transparent data collection policies and offer users control over how their data is collected and used. You’ll need to provide timely support if questions or issues arise. Apple won’t be able to assist with fraud, IP disputes, payment disputes, or refunds.