The Miniature Tariff War

Apple and Google have maintained their app monopolies through tariff-like commission fees and unfair restrictions for more than a decade. Now, the legal challenges are burgeoning.

Jun 10, 2025

∙ Paid

While the US has declared economic warfare against its allies, China, and the poor penguins on a deserted Island in the Pacific Ocean, another parallel tariff war is ongoing on a miniature level. This one is between app stores and app developers.

For years, app developers were forced to pay Apple’s and Google’s “tariffs” to commercialize their products. The respective app stores offer a massive reach and handy tools for developers and marketing people but at a price of up to 30% of all current and future revenue made from purchases within the apps. Apple and Google gate the market access so this bargain is practically impossible to say no to.

I probably don't need to tell you that the app stores' commission fees are BIG business, even in the measurement of BigTech. I will tell you anyway. According to the digital analytics platform Sensor Tower's annual report, users spent 4.2 trillion hours on apps this past year and consumer spending reached $150 billion. It has been estimated that Apple made $27.39 billion in commission fees from apps globally last year.

However, over the last five years, approximately, the resistance towards Apple's and Google's app empires has steadily materialized. Understanding how the situation has evolved is to understand a key part – I would argue the key part – of Internet history.

I don’t think the “economic war” rhetoric is out of place when discussing Apple and Google’s “tariffs”. America’s internet platforms are not just one of the country’s main exports from a GNB perspective, they are the source and the channel of US “soft power” through which it exerts global power and influence.

As Tim Sweeney, told The New York Times after his company Epic Games sued Apple and Google to challenge their app store policies:

“It’s critical to the future of humanity. Otherwise, you have these corporations who control all commerce and all speech”

This is the point.

How much should the US tech giant be allowed to charge?

In a new preprinted paper “Why the Apple App Store and the Google Play Store fees should be low or even zero” one of Europe’s leading competition lawyers, Damien Geradin, argues that the commission fee of app stores should be close to zero, amount to zero, or even in some cases be negative.

In this week’s post, we will get up to speed on current legal developments that existentially challenge the tech giants' burdensome commission fees. We will also understand exactly why and how this economic war is important for the internet’s future.