Post

#Apple has announced new terms for alternative app distribution in the EU (18 August 2026). The reduction of fees is welcome, but the core problems for smaller developers and #FreeSoftware remain there. 🧵A thread on why we're still concerned about #DMA compliance.🧵

The biggest issue: #notarization. Every app must pass Apple's automatic and human review before it can run on iOS, even when distributed outside the App Store, via an alternative marketplace or a website. No channel escapes Apple's gatekeeping.

Once notarized, Apple encrypts the binary. Nobody can run, inspect, or share that software freely. This makes it impossible to distribute #FreeSoftware apps, as the freedoms cannot be guaranteed.

On top of that, every developer still needs an Apple Developer Account just to distribute software at all, no matter the channel.

A fee waiver could help not-for-profit projects. But it changes nothing about notarization, developer accounts, or entry thresholds. For #FreeSoftware, this is not the substantial shift the #DMA should deliver, and we have been highlighting this in our report. doi.org/10.5281/zeno...

These concerns were already raised in a complaint to the European Commission filed by @freiheitsrechte.org and @article19.bsky.social, which the FSFE contributed to. www.article19.org/wp-content/u...