As 2024 draws to a close, we reflect on the activities and progress of the App Fair Project.

The year started out with anticipation of Apple’s compliance with the Digital Markets Act. As we wrote in last year’s retrospective, the expectation was that iOS would be granted the technological capabilities to create a storefront application that can download, install, and update apps independently of Apple’s App Store, similar to how Android has always supported third-party app storefronts. Instead, the actual compliance solution they have offered is merely an extension of the existing app submission workflow, with the additional option of redistributing approved apps through an “alternative app marketplace”. This requires that a marketplace be approved and granted a special entitlement to be able to build and maintain an app store.

We regard this modification of the existing App Store regime as insufficient for the needs of a truly independent app distribution system. However, it is a first step, and we fully expect that the compliance efforts will evolve and expand in the coming months as EU regulators listen to feedback from the community and form their assessment of compliance (as they have recently done with interoperability requirements). So in March we applied for the alternative app marketplace entitlement, which required that we set up a European subsidiary organization. This led to the creation of the App Fair France. Once this was established, we were eventually granted the MarketplaceKit development entitlement, which gives us the ability to start implementing the App Fair client application using the new MarketplaceKit APIs.

However, to actually be able to distribute applications through the marketplace, we must be granted an additional “distribution entitlement”, and we were informed that this requires the posting of a €1,000,000 letter of credit. This sum obviously presents a significant barrier to a project of this nature. We have requested an exemption from this requirement as a non-profit and are hopeful that Apple will eventually grant it.

Other activities throughout the year include participation on various panels and working groups that are assessing the DMA compliance efforts of the gatekeepers. In March I attended the EC Digital Markets Act workshop to assess the current state of compliance, which I wrote about. Throughout the autumn, I participated in a “Workshop on Mobile Ecosystems – Technical & Security Issues” for alternative app installation channels, which is to be published on the European Commission’s website.

None of this wrangling is fun or pleasant, but is is all a prerequisite for the App Fair Project’s mission: to provide a free universal app store to distribute software for the common good. We expect that 2025 will be the year that we will be able to start distributing free apps in a truly independent manner.