Apple hit with weekly €5M fines in Dutch dating app dispute

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

The authority for consumers and markets in the Netherlands has fined Apple $5 million for failing to let dating app developers use third-party payment methods. Apple will be fined 5 million dollars a week until it complies with the order, which was publicly issued on December 24th.

Apple's bottom line is unlikely to be impacted by the 5 million fines because the company has a market cap of $2 trillion and revenues of $83.4 billion. South Korea's actions before it could embolden others to take action against Apple's App Store policies.

Apple tried to comply with the instructions. Ahead of the January 15th deadline, the iPhone manufacturer announced that it would allow dating apps to offer third-party payment options in the Netherlands. We are obligated to make the mandated changes.

Apple's approach has been taken issue with by the ACM. It says that Apple hasn't rolled out support for third-party payment providers in the Dutch App Store. Developers can express their interest in using alternative payment systems, but they aren't able to use them in their apps.

Providers must be able to choose between using an alternative in-app payment system or pointing users to make payments outside of their app.

Apple said it still intended to collect a commission on payments made using external payment processors when it announced the changes earlier this month. The Dutch market would need a separate version of the app for this to happen. The ruling relates to dating apps, rather than apps more generally, following a complaint from the Match Group, which owns the dating app Tinder.

Apple didn't respond immediately to The Verge's request for comment. It said earlier this month that it would be appealing the decision.

The decision was welcomed by Tim Sweeney, who called Apple's earlier response to the order a "sham solution".

Apple's policy of forcing many developers to use its own in-app payments system has been a focus of antitrust scrutiny around the world. Last year, South Korea passed a law preventing major platform owners like Apple from forcing developers to use their own in-app payment systems. In the US, a judge ordered Apple to allow developers to link out to other payment processors, but this ruling was put on hold pending appeal.