The Netherlands Authority for Consumers and Markets (ACM) today fined Apple an additional five million euros for allegedly failing to satisfy the requirements it set regarding alternative payment systems for dating apps. This is the fourth consecutive week that the ACM has fined Apple, with the total penalty now standing at 20 million euros.
In a press release, the ACM said that Apple's requirement that dating app providers must submit a separate app binary in the Netherlands if they wish to offer alternative payment systems is unreasonable and disadvantageous.
The ACM said it also has concerns about a number of other requirements set by Apple, such as forcing dating apps to choose between the App Store's standard in-app purchase system or alternative payment systems. The competition regulator has previously said that dating apps must be able to offer both options in the Netherlands.
The ACM will continue to fine Apple five million euros per week, up to a maximum of 50 million euros, until it feels the company has fully complied with the order.
Earlier this month, Apple provided additional details for dating apps wishing to offer alternative payment systems in the Netherlands, including that it will charge a 27% commission on purchases made in dating apps that use alternative payment systems.
Apple has appealed the ACM's order, arguing that alternative payment systems in the App Store pose privacy and security risks for customers. Apple also said it would be unable to assist customers with refund requests, subscription management, and other issues encountered when purchasing digital goods and services through alternative systems.
Top Rated Comments
I mean, this isn't very complicated, but let me break it down for you:
The Dutch regulator has ordered Apple to give users multiple payment options.
Apple won't oblige and is instead forcing app developers to either choose to include Apple's own payment processor or an an outside party, but won't allow both.
It would seem the reason Apple is doing this is that they are counting on app developers not bothering to do all that work for a market as small as the Netherlands, thereby forcing the status quo to remain in place.
A reason it has to be a separate sku AND pick one form of payment is so Apple SDK can carve out this special case without breaking every other kind of app and all apps for every other country.
This should simply be a link out to their website to pay. It warns the user and then launches Safari (not in-app WebView) and let’s the user go deal with the website to subscribe. This is what they should all agree on. In-app has the money go through Apple and web based has the money go through third party. And then tell them to account for Apple’s commission separately.
Apple should NOT have to provide or allow third party in-app purchasing because it can be abused to look like Apple purchasing and can confuse the user. Apple should also not be preventing links to purchasing on the open web.