Apple names its link-out price: 15, 10 and 5 percent, filed the day it begged for settlement talks

Apple told a federal judge in Northern California on Thursday what it wants to charge on purchases made through links out of iOS apps: 15 percent from standard apps, 10 percent from apps in its Video Partner, News Partner and Mini Apps programs and on subscription renewals, and 5 percent from developers in its Small Business Program ^[3]. It filed that number the same day it asked the same court to order both sides into court-supervised settlement talks, an offer Epic's attorneys had already rejected earlier in the week, according to 9to5Mac ^[1][2].

The filing was not voluntary. Apple had argued the lower court should wait for the Supreme Court to decide whether it was in contempt for imposing a 27 percent commission on external-link purchases and restricting how developers could present those links; the Supreme Court refused to pause the case on Thursday, forcing the disclosure ^[6][7].

Two baselines matter for anyone building a web checkout. The first is what Apple may collect today, which is nothing: Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers ruled in April 2025 that Apple willfully failed to comply with her 2021 injunction, and Apple currently cannot take a commission on external purchases ^[8]. Measured against that, the proposal is a 15-point ask on standard apps ^[15]. The second is the 27 percent that produced the contempt fight, against which 15 percent is 12 points lower ^[14].

The awkward part sits in Apple's own filing. A Ninth Circuit panel said Apple could charge a commission based on "necessary costs" ^[9], and Apple concedes that its necessary costs under that definition "would be essentially zero" ^[10]. It is asking instead for "at least some compensation" for the tools, technology and services it provides ^[4], and cites expert analysis that at these rates "large numbers of U.S. developers collectively accounting for the lion's share of App Store revenue will be able to link out profitably" ^[11]. The benchmark it offers is Google Play, which charges 20 percent on link-outs for standard apps, 15 percent for special programs and 10 percent on subscription renewals, rates Apple notes Epic accepted ^[12]. On that comparison Apple undercuts Google by 5 points at the top two tiers and matches it exactly on renewals ^[13].

Epic's response, posted on X, is that the fees are "far outside of the bounds of the Ninth Circuit's guidance on permissible fees," and that it has roughly 60 days to file an opposition backed by expert witnesses ^[5]. Apple, Epic and Google did not immediately respond to Gizmodo's requests for comment ^[20].

Read together, the settlement motion and the fee schedule are an attempt to set the reference point before a judge sets it instead. The Google side of the same week shows what court-set compliance looks like: Aptoide became the first rival store downloadable through Google Play in the US, and at Thursday's hearing Judge James Donato told Google to fix search results that returned no third-party stores for "store for apps," giving it a week ^[18]. Google and Epic withdrew their own proposed settlement last month after Donato said it did not go far enough ^[19].

What to watch: Epic's expert-backed opposition inside the roughly 60-day window ^[5], whether Gonzalez Rogers grants the settlement conference at all ^[1], the Supreme Court's contempt argument ^[6], and Google's one-week deadline as a preview of how literally these courts read compliance ^[18].