The European Union expected its Digital Markets Act to reshape how tech giants treat consumers. The goal was simple: lower the costs of digital goods by forcing dominant companies to open up their platforms. Yet a new study based on millions of App Store transactions shows that the expected savings never reached ordinary users.
Apple introduced alternative business terms in March 2024 to comply with the new law. The change allowed developers to pay lower commissions on app sales, in-app purchases, and subscriptions made through the App Store in the European Union. In theory, that reduction should have given developers room to cut prices. Instead, most of them chose to keep their prices unchanged or even raise them.
The study, carried out by Analysis Group and supported by Apple, examined data from 41 million App Store transactions across roughly 21,000 paid apps and in-app purchases. It compared prices from the three months before the new rules took effect with those from the three months after. The average commission rate fell by about ten percentage points, saving developers around twenty million euros in total. But 91 percent of the observed products stayed the same or became more expensive.
Only nine percent of apps lowered prices, and even then, the reductions were small. Many were limited to a few cents, with a median cut of just 2.5 percent. The analysis also showed that these drops followed the same seasonal patterns developers displayed before the fee change. The conclusion was that most decreases were unrelated to the Digital Markets Act or Apple’s revised fee structure.
A closer look at the numbers reveals another imbalance. More than eighty-six percent of the savings went to developers based outside the European Union. That means the law, designed to help European consumers and developers, ended up benefiting companies elsewhere. Apple’s past data tell a similar story. When it introduced its Small Business Program in 2021 and halved commissions for small developers, fewer than five percent of apps saw any price reduction.
The report also checked whether Apple’s new Core Technology Fee had any impact. This fee applies to large apps with over a million first-time installs each year. Most of the developers studied did not pay it, yet the pricing behavior was nearly identical between those who did and those who did not. Even when the fee was in place, ninety-one percent of products stayed at the same price or went higher.
Apple has framed the results as proof that the Digital Markets Act has failed to deliver its promises. The company argues that the law has not only missed its goal of lowering prices but has also added complexity and risk to the App Store ecosystem. Apple says its engineers now face the challenge of providing access to its technology under stricter sharing requirements while still maintaining user privacy. It also links the regulation to delays in rolling out features such as iPhone Mirroring, Live Translation for AirPods Pro, and automatic Wi-Fi syncing in iOS updates across the region.
At the same time, Apple’s critics view the company’s position as self-serving. They point out that the study covers only data from Apple’s own platform and ignores alternative app marketplaces that the law now allows. Those stores may eventually offer competitive pricing once they reach scale, but for now their share of total app transactions remains limited.
The European Commission is still reviewing the Digital Markets Act, a process required by law rather than triggered by this report. The review could take months and is unlikely to reverse the DMA’s main structure. Even so, the new findings raise questions about whether price reductions should ever have been the central benchmark of the law’s success. Developers are businesses before they are consumers, and the data suggests they are acting accordingly.
The study ends on a quiet but eye-opening point. Lower commissions alone do not guarantee lower prices. Market behavior depends on more than fee structures. The Digital Markets Act promised savings for users, but in practice, prices on the App Store in Europe look much the same as before, and this pattern might well apply on a global scale.
Notes: This post was edited/created using GenAI tools. Image: DIW-Aigen.
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Apple introduced alternative business terms in March 2024 to comply with the new law. The change allowed developers to pay lower commissions on app sales, in-app purchases, and subscriptions made through the App Store in the European Union. In theory, that reduction should have given developers room to cut prices. Instead, most of them chose to keep their prices unchanged or even raise them.
The study, carried out by Analysis Group and supported by Apple, examined data from 41 million App Store transactions across roughly 21,000 paid apps and in-app purchases. It compared prices from the three months before the new rules took effect with those from the three months after. The average commission rate fell by about ten percentage points, saving developers around twenty million euros in total. But 91 percent of the observed products stayed the same or became more expensive.
Only nine percent of apps lowered prices, and even then, the reductions were small. Many were limited to a few cents, with a median cut of just 2.5 percent. The analysis also showed that these drops followed the same seasonal patterns developers displayed before the fee change. The conclusion was that most decreases were unrelated to the Digital Markets Act or Apple’s revised fee structure.
A closer look at the numbers reveals another imbalance. More than eighty-six percent of the savings went to developers based outside the European Union. That means the law, designed to help European consumers and developers, ended up benefiting companies elsewhere. Apple’s past data tell a similar story. When it introduced its Small Business Program in 2021 and halved commissions for small developers, fewer than five percent of apps saw any price reduction.
The report also checked whether Apple’s new Core Technology Fee had any impact. This fee applies to large apps with over a million first-time installs each year. Most of the developers studied did not pay it, yet the pricing behavior was nearly identical between those who did and those who did not. Even when the fee was in place, ninety-one percent of products stayed at the same price or went higher.
Apple has framed the results as proof that the Digital Markets Act has failed to deliver its promises. The company argues that the law has not only missed its goal of lowering prices but has also added complexity and risk to the App Store ecosystem. Apple says its engineers now face the challenge of providing access to its technology under stricter sharing requirements while still maintaining user privacy. It also links the regulation to delays in rolling out features such as iPhone Mirroring, Live Translation for AirPods Pro, and automatic Wi-Fi syncing in iOS updates across the region.
At the same time, Apple’s critics view the company’s position as self-serving. They point out that the study covers only data from Apple’s own platform and ignores alternative app marketplaces that the law now allows. Those stores may eventually offer competitive pricing once they reach scale, but for now their share of total app transactions remains limited.
The European Commission is still reviewing the Digital Markets Act, a process required by law rather than triggered by this report. The review could take months and is unlikely to reverse the DMA’s main structure. Even so, the new findings raise questions about whether price reductions should ever have been the central benchmark of the law’s success. Developers are businesses before they are consumers, and the data suggests they are acting accordingly.
The study ends on a quiet but eye-opening point. Lower commissions alone do not guarantee lower prices. Market behavior depends on more than fee structures. The Digital Markets Act promised savings for users, but in practice, prices on the App Store in Europe look much the same as before, and this pattern might well apply on a global scale.
Notes: This post was edited/created using GenAI tools. Image: DIW-Aigen.
Read next: OpenAI Pushes Ahead with GPT-5.1 While Legal and Ethical Questions Persist
