Apple has told a US federal court what it wants to charge developers who send customers outside the App Store to pay.

The proposal is 15% for standard apps, 10% for subscription renewals and for apps in the Video, News and Mini Apps partner programmes, and 5% for the Small Business Program. It filed on 13 August, hours after the Supreme Court refused to pause the proceedings. Apple currently collects nothing on those purchases.

The Ninth Circuit said Apple may recover its necessary costs on linked-out purchases, and Apple conceded that under that definition the figure is essentially zero. It is asking for 15% regardless, arguing the fee compensates it for the tools, technology and intellectual property developers use to build on iOS.

Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers set the current zero rate in April 2025, when she found Apple in wilful contempt of her 2021 injunction over the 27% it had been charging. Apple has also filed a motion seeking a settlement conference. Epic called the rates far outside the bounds the Ninth Circuit drew and has roughly 60 days to respond.

Apple points to Google Play's link-out rates of 20%, 15% and 10%, which Epic accepted.

TechCrunch reported the structure and Apple's argument that the fees recoup its investment in App Store tools and services. 9to5Mac published the full remand proffer and notes Apple's Supreme Court brief is due by 14 September. AppleMagazine stresses that filing the plan changes nothing yet, because Gonzalez Rogers must first rule that the rates comply with her injunction.

Strip out the legal language and Apple is arguing that a toll can be justified by the road it built years ago rather than by the cost of the crossing. That argument may well hold. What matters for founders here is narrower and less comfortable.

This proceeding is American, and nothing about it applies automatically to South Africa. Europe has the Digital Markets Act, the US has Epic and a district judge, and we have neither.

If you sell a subscription app out of Cape Town, your rate is whatever Apple settles on, decided in a courtroom where you have no standing. Budget for 15% on the link-out you thought was your escape hatch, and treat anything lower as upside.

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