App Store Commission Cuts in China Don’t Satisfy Developers

Forty-eight China-based iOS developers have filed a formal antitrust complaint with China’s State Administration for Market Regulation, asking officials to investigate Apple for charging what the group calls “unfair and excessively high” commission fees. The complaint, reported by the South China Morning Post, targets Apple’s control over iOS app distribution and payments in one of its largest markets.

The timing follows a recent Apple concession. The company cut its standard commission in China from 30% to 25% in March, and also reduced fees for subscription renewals and qualifying developers in its Small Business and Mini Apps Partner programs from 15% to 12%. The developers are not satisfied with those adjustments.

Their core argument is a comparisons across markets one: Apple has modified App Store rules in Brazil and Japan, and the European Union’s Digital Markets Act already compels the company to allow third-party app marketplaces. The developers want China to receive equivalent flexibility, and their more ambitious ask goes further.

The group estimates that allowing third-party app stores and flexible payment options in China would reduce Apple’s effective commission rate to as low as 5%. That figure illustrates the gap between a structural change and the incremental fee cuts Apple has offered so far.

A pattern of pressure

This is not the first time Chinese developers have organized against App Store fees. Similar complaints were filed in 2017 and 2021, neither of which produced significant structural changes. Apple is already under antitrust scrutiny in the EU over App Store rules, and the Chinese complaint adds another jurisdiction to a growing list of regulatory challenges around iOS distribution. Whether China’s market regulator treats this complaint differently from its predecessors is the open question, and the developers have given officials a concrete framework to work from rather than a general grievance.