The Netherlands Authority for Consumers and Markets (or ACM) has rejected Apple’s planned App Store modifications that would allow dating app makers to use third-party payment systems. The Dutch regulator ordered the adjustment in December and has been arguing with Apple about how it should be implemented — and charging Apple millions of dollars in fines along the way. Apple may now face additional sanctions.
According to a journalist’s tweet, the regulator believes Apple’s latest plan for allowing developers to use third-party payment systems is an “upgrade” over prior suggestions, but it is still “insufficient to comply with European and Dutch standards.” Apple did not respond immediately to The Verge’s request for comment.
Apple’s most recent proposal, submitted on March 27th, stated that dating app developers may use either a third-party payment system or Apple’s, but not both and that developers would have to notify users that they were about to interface with a system that Apple did not control. The same is true if the developer directs users to its website in order for them to complete a transaction.
In addition, Apple stated that developers who use alternative payment methods would still owe the corporation a 27 percent commission on in-app sales, as opposed to the 30 percent it gets from most in-app payments made through its own system.
Apple had earlier requested that the only people affected by the ACM’s order, dating app creators, submit different versions of their apps for the Netherlands. It eliminated that provision in March after the regulator rejected the earlier proposal as “unreasonable.”
