Apple's appeal on fines over App Store rejected by Dutch regulator

Robert Besser
04 Oct 2023, 19:48 GMT+10

This week, Dutch competition regulator, the ACM, rejected an appeal by Apple against fines worth €50 million
The U.S. tech giant was fined over its failure to comply with orders to limit the dominant position of its App Store
Apple has complied with most of its demands to open its App Store to alternative forms of payment for dating apps in the Netherlands, but it did not meet an undisclosed third element of the conditions related to the fines

AMSTERDAM, The Netherlands: This week, Dutch competition regulator, the ACM, rejected an appeal by Apple against fines worth €50 million.

The U.S. tech giant was fined over its failure to comply with orders to limit the dominant position of its App Store.

Apple has complied with most of its demands to open its App Store to alternative forms of payment for dating apps in the Netherlands, but it did not meet an undisclosed third element of the conditions related to the fines, the ACM said.

In 2021, the regulator ruled that Apple violated Dutch competition laws in the dating app market and stressed that it must allow dating app developers to use third-party payment processors.

Apple was subsequently fined €5 million per week, but as it failed to comply, the total eventually reached €50 million.

In response, Apple said that the ACM had overestimated the dominance of its position in the dating app market and incorrectly defined relevant markets.

"We disagree with the ACM's original order, which degrades investment incentives and is not in the best interests of our users' privacy or data security," Apple said.

"As the ACM has denied our administrative appeal, we will appeal to the Netherlands courts," it added.

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