Dutch regulators have fined Apple $5.7 million for the fifth consecutive week. The country’s antitrust watchdog is charging the tech giant again over the lack of third-party payment options in the App Store for dating apps – a change Apple was supposed to implement by January 15.
Apple regulatory fines add up to $25M in Dutch App Store case
As reported by Reuters, the Authority for Consumers and Markets said Apple is “abusing a dominant market position by failing to allow software application makers in the Netherlands to use other payment methods for dating apps accessible via its App Store.”
The Dutch watchdog said that the tech giant still has not made a proposal to comply with its ruling. “We have clearly explained to Apple how they can comply…,” ACM said in a statement. “So far, however, they have refused to put forward any serious proposals.”
Interestingly, the ACM does not address the new measure Apple announced on February 4 saying it would charge a 27% commission fee for developers using alternative payment methods for Dutch dating apps in place of its in-app purchase system in the Netherlands.
Interestingly, the ACM does not address the 27% commission that Apple has announced it plans to charge on these transactions. Apple made this announcement a couple of weeks ago, but ACM still says Apple “refused to put forward any serious proposal.” The ACM told Reuters on February 7 that it was looking at the tech giant’s changes to decide if it now complies with the rules. Later on the same day, the regulator fined Apple another $5.7 million.
According to the publication, “the ACM has rejected Apple’s moves as putting an unreasonable burden on software developers and not amounting to compliance.” As the tech giant’s policy requires a new app to be submitted rather than allowing developers to modify existing apps.
This marks the fifth time the Cupertino tech giant has been slapped with a five million euro fine from the ACM. The ACM will continue to fine Apple for a maximum of 10 weeks, for a total fine of 50 million euros or until it makes satisfactory changes to the Dutch App Store.
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