An additional €5 million has been tacked on to Apple’s antitrust cost in the Netherlands, bringing the total to €15 million, the Authority for Consumers and Markets (ACM) revealed today.
Third time’s the charm: a Dutch regulator has fined Apple 5 million euros because it’s not happy with its promises to comply with new App Store payment requirements.
This is the third time that the Dutch antitrust authority has penalised Apple (AAPL.O) $5.72 million for failing to enable Dutch software developers to utilise non-Apple payment methods for the company’s App Store-listed dating applications.
This is the third time in as many weeks that Apple has been hit with a penalty for violating the terms of the agreement. “We are dissatisfied with Apple’s conduct and actions,” stated the ACM, adding that it had not received sufficient information to assess if Apple was in compliance with the new standards.
Last week, Apple sparked outrage by announcing that it would still charge a 27 percent commission on payments made via alternative means or after a user clicked on a link, despite allowing developers to create separate apps that enable alternative payment methods on devices such as the iPhone 13 and its other best iPhones. The action was dubbed “absolutely disgusting” by one developer, while Epic Games CEO Tim Sweeney called Apple’s compliance strategy a “sham”.
Publicly, Apple has said that it intends to earn a commission on all iOS in-app purchases as well as any payments made through other channels.
As a result of the fine, Apple must now enable local dating apps to utilise third-party payment providers for digital content purchases instead of forcing them to use Apple’s own payment infrastructure, which entails a commission charge for Apple.
Despite the fact that Apple has been challenging the Dutch ruling since last year, the company has not given up on its efforts to overturn the ruling. It agreed to allow apps to connect to alternative payment technology last month, as the first deadline for compliance with the threat of a penalty loomed, saying it would be introducing two “optional new entitlements” exclusively for dating apps in the Netherlands App Store so they could provide additional payment processing options for users as required by the order.
The ACM promptly responded to Apple’s claim of compliance last month by fining the company for non-compliance, as the regulator reportedly took issue with Apple’s slowness in meeting the order’s criteria.
Apple’s legal challenge to the ACM’s ruling has not yet been unsealed, therefore the competition regulator has said that it is constrained in what it can say in light of this fact.
According to an Apple statement from last month, the modifications “may impair user experience, and raise significant concerns to user privacy and data security,” therefore the company’s own public communications have focused on challenging the order.