Apple hit with Valentine’s Day fine of $5.6M over Dutch dating app regulations

Apple has been hit with its fourth fine of $5.6 million for failing to comply with new App Store payment regulations in the Netherlands. In a statement, the Dutch Authority for Consumers and Markets says that the “revised conditions that Apple has imposed on dating-app providers are unreasonable, and create an unnecessary barrier.”

On Valentine’s Day nonetheless, the ACM explains that Apple still is not in compliance with its regulations in regards to alternative payment options for dating applications in the Netherlands. The regulators explain that Apple has imposed a “considerable number of conditions” on dating app developers who wish to offer alternative payment solutions other than Apple’s own In-App Purchase system.

Interestingly, the ACM does not address the 27% commission that Apple has announced it plans to charge on these transactions. Apple made this announcement last week, and while today’s ACM statement notes of Apple’s “revised conditions,” it doesn’t directly address the 27% structure.

The full statement from the ACM is as follows:

The new conditions stipulate that dating-app providers must develop a completely new app if they wish to use an alternative payment system. Apple has informed ACM about these new conditions. App providers cannot adjust their existing apps. ACM finds this to be an unreasonable condition that is at odds with the requirements that Apple had set out. 

In its revised conditions, Apple imposes a considerable number of conditions on dating-app providers that wish to use an alternative method of payment. For example, dating-app providers must develop a new app, and submit that new app to the Apple App Store. ACM is of the opinion that this condition hurts dating-app providers. Dating-app providers that opt for an alternative payment system are thus forced to incur additional costs. And consumers that currently use the app have to switch to the new app before they are able to use the alternative method of payment. It will cost app providers a lot of time and effort to inform consumers properly about such a change. For example, consumers will have to delete the old app, and install the new one. In addition, ACM has doubts about several other elements of the revised conditions  that Apple has imposed on dating-app providers. 

This marks the fourth time that Apple has been hit with a five million euro fine from the ACM. The ACM will fine Apple for a maximum of 10 weeks, for a total fine of 50 million euros. The total of all penalty payments currently stands at 20 million euros.