Apple's New Proposal On Third-Party Payments For Dating Apps Still Under Review By ACM

JAKARTA – The Dutch Antitrust Supervisory Agency said Apple had sent a "new proposal" on Monday, March 14. The proposal is meant to try to resolve a long-term dispute over the company's failure to allow dating app developers to use non-Apple payment methods in the Netherlands.

According to a Reuters report, the Authority for Consumers and Markets (ACM) did not disclose what solutions Apple had proposed. But ACM had previously imposed a fine of 5 million euros (IDR 86.8 billion) on the US company. This is the ninth weekly sentencing Apple has received in a dispute with ACM since January 2021.

Reported earlier, ACM had ordered Apple to provide local dating apps the ability to use alternative payment technologies for in-app purchases in August last year. This is done after Apple forced application developers to use payments from their side.

Application developers who feel disadvantaged because of the fees for Apple continue to complain about this. Apple is also accused of using its dominance to give developers no freedom, in terms of payments.

Apple had previously submitted a proposal to resolve the case. But the ACM called the first proposal from Apple is not reasonable.

"The adjustment conditions that Apple has set for dating app providers are unreasonable and create an unnecessary barrier," ACM said in a statement.

“The new requirement states that if they want to use an alternative payment system, then the dating app provider will have to create a new app from scratch. Apple has notified ACM about this. Application providers cannot modify their existing applications," ACM added.