Dutch court upholds antitrust ruling against Apple over App Store payment rules

A Dutch court has upheld a key antitrust ruling against Apple, confirming that the tech giant abused its dominant market position in the App Store by enforcing restrictive payment terms on dating app developers. The decision reaffirms a 2021 ruling by the Netherlands Authority for Consumers and Markets (ACM), which found Apple’s policies in violation of European Union competition laws.

The Rotterdam District Court ruled that Apple unfairly required dating apps to use its proprietary in-app payment system, barred developers from guiding users to external payment options, and charged commissions of up to 30% on transactions—15% for smaller developers. These rules, the court agreed, imposed “unfair conditions” on developers operating within the Dutch market.

The ACM originally ordered Apple in August 2021 to revise its App Store policies for dating apps distributed in the Netherlands. The regulator demanded that Apple allow alternative payment systems or at least provide developers with the ability to redirect users to external methods of payment. Apple’s failure to fully implement these changes led to a series of weekly fines, which eventually totaled €50 million (approximately $54 million).

In response to the ruling, an Apple spokesperson told Reuters:

“This ruling undermines the technology and tools we’ve created to benefit developers and protect users’ privacy and security, and we plan to appeal.”

The court’s decision means that the ACM’s enforcement actions—including the imposed penalties—remain in effect. This case is one of several Apple is facing worldwide over its App Store business practices. Though this ruling specifically targets dating apps in the Netherlands, it comes amid increasing regulatory scrutiny across jurisdictions, fueled in part by the European Union’s new Digital Markets Act (DMA).

Under the DMA, Apple is already being required to relax some of its long-standing App Store rules across Europe. Simultaneously, regulators in other countries, including Japan, Brazil, and the United Kingdom, have launched similar investigations into the company’s control over app distribution and payment frameworks.

While Monday’s decision does not yet mandate changes for other app categories, it adds legal momentum to broader challenges against Apple’s App Store model—raising further questions about the limits of platform control in digital marketplaces.