Most App Store developers don’t accept Apple’s new external payments option

It seems Apple’s recently added option for App Store developers to include links to external payment methods isn’t really that appealing. In a hearing Friday as part of its ongoing legal battle with Epic, Apple said only 38 developers had applied to add such links — out of an estimated 65,000 that could, according to . The new guidelines, , require developers to get Apple’s approval before they can add alternative payment options and stipulate that they will still have to pay a commission of up to 27 percent.

The changes were intended to comply with an injunction ordered by U.S. District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers in 2021, but acc. , in March Epic called Apple’s attempted compliance a “fraud” and filed a lawsuit. At this point, Rodgers doesn’t seem really impressed either. “It sounds to me like the goal was then to keep the business model and revenue that you had in the past,” Rogers said of Apple’s decision during the latest hearing, according to Bloomberg.

In addition to Apple’s commission, developers also have to consider payment processing fees, which overall can make them pay even more than before. “You’re telling me a thousand people were involved [in approving the new fee] and none of them said that maybe we should consider the price [to developers]?” said the judge.