With the Digital Markets Act (DMA) coming into effect in the European Union (EU) this year, online store operators need to give users the option to download apps from third-party stores and make payments outside the ecosystem. According to the WSJ report, Apple will continue to charge for sideloaded applications.
According to the report, a fee is charged to check the security of the application that wants to be installed first. The payment mechanism and the price that will be charged to users is still unknown at this point. Apple is against sideloading applications because according to Tim Cook it endangers the security of the device. What he said has an element of truth because in Malaysia, for example, there are hundreds of cases of bank funds being siphoned off after Android users install malicious applications as a sideload after being tricked.
It is not yet known whether the EU will allow Apple to charge for this process since sideloading apps on Android does not incur any fees. Through the DMA, the EU wants to give people the option to download and make payments through channels of their own choosing instead of being forced to do so now.
For developers, it allows them to fully collect payments in the application without losing up to 30% of the commission taken by online store operators.