Dutch Regulator Upholds Fines Despite Apple’s Objections

The Dutch competition watchdog, ACM, announced on Monday that it has upheld its decision to impose fines of 50 million euros ($52.9 million) on Apple, Reuters reported. The fines were imposed on the tech giant due to its failure to comply with regulations aimed at curbing the dominant position of Apple’s App Store.

According to the ACM, Apple has made progress in meeting most of the requirements to open its App Store to alternative payment methods for dating apps in the Netherlands. However, the company has not yet fulfilled an undisclosed third element of the conditions that were linked to the fines.

In 2021, the ACM determined that Apple had violated Dutch competition laws in the dating app market and mandated that Apple allow dating app developers to utilize third-party payment processors. To incentivize compliance, the ACM imposed fines of 5 million euros per week, up to a maximum of 50 million euros, for the duration that Apple failed to adhere to these directives. In June 2022, the ACM said Apple would let dating apps offering third party in-app payment options on the Netherland’s app store.

Apple contested these fines, arguing that the regulator had inaccurately defined the relevant markets and had overestimated the extent of its dominance in the dating app market and the potential for abuse of that dominance.

However, the ACM has now rejected all of Apple’s objections in a decision issued on July 13, 2023, and made public on Monday.

Apple has chosen to file an appeal against the ruling, as confirmed by the ACM.