Apple’s statements about its developer program in the Epic trial
Apple’s statements about its developer program in the Epic trial
August 17 2026
I was reading Apple’s August 13 court filing in the Epic trial, helpfully hosted by 9to5Mac, and I was surprised by a statement Apple made about its developer program:
Unlike cost-only based commissions, Apple’s revenue-based commissions incentivize<br>continued investment. Apple charges developers a $99 annual fee for the Apple Developer<br>Program. May 17, 2021 Trial Tr. at 2762:21–2763:13. This modest fee—designed to prevent fraud<br>and expressly not intended to compensate Apple for the use of its IP-protected tools, technologies,<br>and services (id.)—allows developers to build apps using Apple’s offerings and deliver experiences<br>to iOS and iPadOS users worldwide. See, e.g., Meyer Rpt. ¶¶ 42, 51–52.<br>The annual developer fee is nominal. Apple relies on percentage-based commissions to<br>recoup and profit from its investments. See id. ¶¶ 87–93. Apple is incentivized to invest in IP-<br>protected tools, technologies, and services that generate revenue for developers (and benefit users).<br>And, importantly, developers benefit from these investments regardless of whether sales occur via<br>IAP or linked-out purchases. See id. ¶¶ 94–95, 415.
I love how “and benefit users”—and thus benefit Apple via hardware sales to users—is a mere parenthetical remark, as if Apple were a charitable foundation to benefit developers rather than a corporation to benefit its stockholders. Anyway, the surprising part of this statement to me was that the $99 annual membership fee is “expressly not intended to compensate Apple for the use of its IP-protected tools, technologies, and services.” For me, as an App Store developer, Apple’s statement rubs salt into the wound. I’ve written before about my objection: Why does Apple make a minority of developers finance the entire App Store?
With a few exceptions such as registered nonprofit organizations (from which Apple requires significant red tape), every App Store developer pays the annual $99 Apple developer program fee. However, the App Store percentage commission amounts to $0 for apps that are free to use, even if those apps happen to generate $billions for their developers in various ways: in-app advertising, in-app billing that is (arbitrarily) exempted from the App Store commission, usage of services that are paid to the developer outside their app, etc. The developers of these apps get access to Apple’s IP-protected tools, technologies, and services for free, no matter how popular the app, no matter how profitable to the developer. According to Apple’s court filing, the $99 developer program fee does not even count toward this access. As a developer who does have to pay the commission, this situation strikes me as extremely unfair.
Perhaps Apple’s characterization of its developer program fee is old news to some other people, but I don’t recall hearing it until now. Apple’s court filing refers to “May 17, 2021 Trial Tr. at 2762:21–2763:13,” which I guessed correctly was the Epic trial transcript. I found a copy of the transcript online. I’ll quote the relevant passage here, Phil Schiller testifying under oath, questioned by Apple’s own lawyer Richard Doren.
Q. How often is that $99 fee charged?
A. Once a year.
Q. And there are instances where individuals enter into these<br>contracts, there are instances where companies enter into<br>these contracts; is that true?
A. Yes.
Q. Can you tell us kind of how many people pay -- or how<br>often that the $99 is charged in those scenarios?
A. Yeah. It's set up as a once-a-year program, and it<br>doesn't really matter how big the team is. It could be an<br>individual. It could be ten thousand developers. You can --<br>you set it up. Many companies just set it up for large teams.<br>Each one will have their own account and agreement. But it's<br>independent of whether -- what your size is or whether you<br>submit an app. We have developers who want these tools but<br>don't have apps in the App Store. And it's independent of<br>whether you have one app or you want to put, you know, a<br>hundred apps in the App Store. It's all the same.
Q. And how was the $99 fee arrived at?
A. Well, when we looked at the previous program, which I<br>mentioned was upwards of $3,500, we wanted to remove that<br>barrier, so to speak, and reduce it, but in the process, we<br>realized there were two important roles that $99 paid that we<br>thought were beneficial to -- to users.
Number one was that this is part of the account<br>validation, that we want to go through a process to understand<br>who a developer is, are they really who they say they are.<br>Having a financial transaction with that developer is one of<br>many tools that we use to try to validate who the account is,<br>so it was helpful to that.
Secondly -- and Steve thought that it would be nice to<br>have a minimum amount that if you really want to be on the App<br>Store, it's important enough to you that you're willing...