Apple Still Ignoring Orders, Dutch Antimonopoly Supervisors Keep Issuing Fines

Apple has not complied with the orders of the Dutch antitrust watchdog. (photo: doc. pixabay)

JAKARTA - The Dutch antitrust watchdog again fined Apple 5 million euros (IDR 81.1 billion) on Monday, February 21. This is the fifth sentence in consecutive weeks over the issue of restricted access to non-Apple payment methods for subscribing to dating apps.

The Authority for Consumers and Markets (ACM) said the iPhone maker had abused its dominant market position by failing to allow software app makers in the Netherlands to use other payment methods for dating apps accessible through its App Store.

The ACM has imposed a weekly fine of 5 million euros since Apple missed a January 15 deadline for them to make the changes mandated by the watchdog.

Apple itself has not made a new proposal to comply with the decision in the past week.

"We have made it clear to Apple how they can comply ...," the watchdog said in a statement. "However, so far, they have refused to make any serious proposals." Apple itself declined to comment on the statement.

Apple's App Store requirements do state that application developers must exclusively use the company's payment system from the US with a 30% commission. This policy has come under scrutiny in several countries, most recently in the United States. Meanwhile in South Korea, Apple is willing to obey the orders of the authorities there.

In a blog post, Apple indicated that it complied with the Dutch authorities' decision by allowing dating app makers there to submit new apps with alternative payment methods enabled.

Apple says it still intends to charge a 27% commission for unprocessed in-app payments, just under the 30% it charges on processed payments.

ACM has rejected Apple's proposal for placing an unreasonable burden on software developers and not meeting compliance expectations.

Neither Apple nor ACM commented on whether any of the weekly fines that Appl had to pay had been implemented. But if you see the fines that keep popping up for Apple, then you can be sure that everything has not been paid.