Smallerik
Inside the line · Outside the line

Five jurisdictions, twenty-eight pieces. One handset that behaves differently on each side of the border.

Smallerik covers who sets the rules on a phone, jurisdiction by jurisdiction, and what the numbers show.

The Numbers

Fifteen per cent is the whole argument.Which fifteen depends on where the phone is standing.

Apple has charged 30% since 2008 and 15% to small developers since November 2020. Inside the European Union, since 7 March 2024, it also charges €0.50 for an install it does not process. Nowhere else does that fee exist.

Read the piece
An adult hand holding an iPhone showing an app store listing, the phone photographed from directly above, placed across the vertical frontier line dividing the near-black outside field from the warm paper inside field

Outside the line

The same handset, the same app, the same account. On this side of the border there is one store and one rate.

Photo: cottonbro studio / Pexels

A man in a suit gestures while speaking at a podium beside US and EU flags

Brussels · April 2025

€500m

The Commission’s first non-compliance fine against Apple under the Digital Markets Act, over the rules it kept on developers steering customers out of the App Store.

The decision, and what Apple changed afterwards

Brussels

Four of six

Brussels moved first, and it moved by regulation rather than by court

European Union flag against a stylized illustration of the Berlaymont building's curved facade
The Commission’s own compliance page, published for the day the obligations began.Photo: digital-markets-act.ec.europa.eu

7 March 2024

A chronological account of what changed on the day the Digital Markets Act's obligations became enforceable, and which gatekeepers had been designated by then.

The Fee Apple Invented

A close reading of Apple's Core Technology Fee — €0.50 per install beyond one million annually — as announced in January 2024, including which developers it applies to, how Apple calculates the threshold, and why the Commission found it inconsistent with the DMA's spirit.

Named a Gatekeeper

How the Commission's gatekeeper designation process works under Article 3 of the DMA, and what obligations attach the moment a company receives one.

AltStore PAL Opened Its Doors

All six pieces in Brussels

Inside the line

The Digital Markets Act, gatekeeper designations, alternative marketplaces, the Core Technology Fee, and the April 2025 fine — what the EU wrote, what Apple did, and what the Commission did next.

The Berlaymont building facade, European Commission headquarters, Brussels, photographed from street level showing the glass curtain wall and the EU flag
The Berlaymont's curtain wall. Every obligation in this section begins inside this building.Photo: 2017-10-17-bruessel-europaviertel-berlaymont03 · Wikimedia Commons

The Courts

Three of six

Two courts, one question, and neither answer is finished

  • Long-exposure light trails from traffic streak past a fountain and illuminated skyscrapers at night
    Photo: Gabo Orozco Lucio / Pexels

    The Courts

    The One Clause Apple Lost

    A focused explainer on the anti-steering injunction — the single finding in Epic v. Apple that went against Apple at the Ninth Circuit — what it required Apple to permit, and why the 2025 contempt proceedings followed.

  • Aerial view of San Francisco City Hall's illuminated dome amid the surrounding cityscape at dusk
    Photo: San Francisco City Hall as seen from 100 Van Ness at dusk (wide) · Wikimedia Commons

    The Courts

    Twelve People in San Francisco, December 2023

    The December 2023 jury verdict in Epic v. Google, where jurors found Google had illegally monopolised the Android app distribution market — a walk-through of what Epic argued, what Google argued, and what the jury found on each question.

  • A Fairfax police SUV parked along a city street beside other vehicles
    Photo: Fairfax Police Ford SUV near the Ronald V Dellums Federal Building in Oakland, California · Wikimedia Commons

    The Courts

    Apple in Contempt

    The April 2025 contempt finding against Apple for non-compliance with the anti-steering injunction — what Apple had done, what the court found it was required to do, and the remedies imposed.

All six pieces in The Courts

Outside the line

Epic v. Apple from the 2021 Oakland ruling to the 2025 contempt finding, Epic v. Google's December 2023 jury verdict and its injunction, the developer class settlements, and the consumer cases.

The exterior of the Robert F. Peckham Federal Building and United States Courthouse in Oakland, California, photographed on a clear day from the plaza
The federal courthouse in Oakland. The United States never legislated on this; it litigated, twice.Photo: Robert So / Pexels

The Numbers

The one table

What an install costs on this side

Stores a phone may install fromMore than one
Per first annual install above 1m€0.50
Non-compliance fine, April 2025€500m
Obligations in force since7 March 2024

Rates as published by each store. The Core Technology Fee applies in the European Union only.

All six pieces in The Numbers

Outside · everywhere else

And what it costs on the other

Stores a phone may install fromOne
Standard commission, since 200830%
Small-business tier, since Nov 202015%
US external-link commission, since April 2025None
A laptop screen showing a developer analytics console with revenue figures visible, an adult's hands resting on the keyboard, photographed in office light
A developer analytics console. Almost every public figure here is an estimate read off a screen.Photo: Jakub Zerdzicki / Pexels

The Stores · the line is gone here

2025

Amazon Appstore Closed in 2025

Amazon's decision to shut the Appstore in 2025 — the announcement, the wind-down timeline, and what it says about the difficulty of competing with Google Play on Android.

Read the piece  ·  All five in The Stores

A rack of Android test devices on a laboratory bench, screens lit, photographed from slightly above to show the row of displaysPhoto: Ludovic Delot / Pexels

The Apps

Three of five

The place where all of this is finally settled

One App That Contains the Others

WeChat's superapp architecture — mini-programs, payments, identity — and why it represents a model that neither Apple nor Google's store rules were written to accommodate.

TikTok and the Law That Named It

The Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act (2024), its timeline, the court challenges ByteDance brought, and where the divestiture process stood as of the most recent published filing.

The Retention Problem

AI assistant apps — ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, Claude — since 2023, with published download and monthly-active-user figures showing a consistent gap between install spikes and sustained engagement.

All five in The Apps

An adult looking at a smartphone screen in an indoor public space, the phone screen bright against the ambient light, face visible and in focus
A phone in an indoor public space, which is where all of this is finally settled.Photo: Faheem Ahamad / Pexels

Twenty-eight pieces, five jurisdictions, and one handset that behaves differently depending on where it is switched on.

Set and supported by

Eight houses

The colophon a printed publication carries under its masthead, kept here at the foot of the page.

Principal support

Section support