The Dutch authority for consumers and markets is looking into whether the tech giant is abusing its power after a competition complaint was made against it.
Match Group declined to comment on the substance of its complaint, but the ACM confirmed it had received a request for enforcement regarding the Google Play Store.
Dating-app providers are no longer able to use other payment systems. In addition, dating apps claim they are no longer allowed to refer to other payment methods either.
Match Group has asked for an assessment of whether or not the dominant position of Google is abused by these practices. A preliminary investigation will be conducted in response to this request.
The regulator wouldn't answer questions about the complaint.
A person from the company told us:
Like any business, Google charges for services but Match Group’s apps are eligible to pay just 15% on Google Play for digital subscriptions, which is the lowest rate among major app platforms. But even if they don’t want to comply with Google Play’s policies, Android still provides them multiple ways of distributing their apps to Android users, including through other Android app stores, directly to users via their website or as consumption-only apps.
How Europe has expanded its bid to disrupt Big Tech
After a lengthy battle with Apple over its app store payment rules for local dating apps, the regulators ordered the company to allow alternative payment processing and issue a series of fines.
The maximum fines allowed by the court order were reached by the end of March. According to the report, Apple's offer still doesn't comply with the order, and the regulators are preparing a new order with new penalty payments.
Margrethe Vestager, the European Commission's executive vice president, hit out at Apple for considering paying a fine rather than complying in remarks back in February, which attracted high level attention from the European Commission.
The Commission will be in charge of enforcement of the new ex ante competition regime against the most powerful tech giants which will come into force across the EU later this year.
The final details of the Digital Markets Act were agreed by the bloc's lawmakers in March.
The incoming pan-EU regulation allows fines to be as high as 10% of global annual turnover for non-compliance. That means Big Tech will be harder to ignore than they were before the competition interventions.
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