The base technology fee will be 5% outside of the App Store.
Apple begins allowing alternative app stores for iOS customers in Brazil. We learned in December that the company had reached an agreement with the Conselho Administrativo de Defesa Econômica (CADE), the Brazilian government’s competition regulator, on how third-party marketplaces would operate domestically.
The real appeal of third-party mobile marketplaces for developers is the reduced pricing structure surrounding in-app purchases. The base technology fee for apps distributed outside of the App Store will be 5%. Any alternatives to the App Store will need to be approved by Apple, and apps sold through them will go through a review process called notarization. This review will be less comprehensive than the usual App Store review while ideally detecting instances of malware, viruses, or other security threats.
Apple has been following a long process for years to open its platforms to third-party app stores. The plan for Brazil, including notarization review, is similar to how the company handled third-party marketplaces across Europe when that region began enforcing digital marketplace law.
