IMO, it is dishonest to claim that an oil "meets or exceeds" a specification if you or your supplier have not run and passed
all of the tests required for that specification. That's the expensive part. If you have run and passed all of the required tests, then approval fees are relatively cheap. If you haven't run and passed all of the required tests, then you have no business claiming the oil "meets or exceeds" the specification.
FYI, the API license application fee is only $4,500 plus 0.7 cents per gallon for volumes sold over one million gallons. A drop in the bucket compared to the hundreds of thousands or even millions of dollars needed to run and pass the engine tests.
API License Fees