Apple will let dating app developers in the Netherlands offer alternative payment options, complying with an order to do so by January 15 or face fines
ReutersToby Sterling
Context & Ripple Effects
A Dutch regulator had already ordered Apple to open payment options for dating apps by January 15, with fines of up to €50 million attached to noncompliance. Apple’s response turns that Dutch payment-system order into an operating rule for a narrowly defined App Store segment.
The remedy concerns payment access rather than an unrestricted break from Apple’s commercial model: related coverage later described a planned 27% commission on alternative payments for these developers.
First-order effects
Dating-app developers in the Netherlands can offer users an alternative to Apple’s in-app payment system, while Apple avoids the immediate risk of fines under the Dutch order.
Apple must administer a payment exception for this developer category in the Netherlands rather than relying solely on its standard in-app purchase flow.
Second-order effects
Developers evaluating alternative payment providers must weigh any provider costs against Apple’s planned 27% commission, limiting the economic difference from Apple’s usual 30% in-app purchase charge.
The Dutch regulator gains a concrete compliance benchmark: payment choice is available, but the commercial terms of Apple’s implementation become central to whether the remedy delivers meaningful access.
Third-order effects
If regulators continue to pursue app-store payment remedies by category and country, platform payment rules are likely to fragment into jurisdiction-specific exceptions rather than change uniformly across an entire app store.
Apple’s 27% alternative-payment plan illustrates how platform operators can preserve much of their monetization even when regulators require a new payment path.
The trend: App-store payment control is shifting from a single platform rule toward regulator-mandated, market-specific exceptions whose fees determine their practical impact.
Apple's evasion of the new Dutch law on payment competition is gross. Apple plans to force companies like Match to withdraw their global apps from Holland and make users to install a new Dutch-only version, and then impose an undisclosed tax on payments Apple DOESN'T PROCESS. htt…
Apple is clearly acting in bad faith and will continue to mock governments and regulators for as long as the world allows them to get away with it. Apple's monopoly on distribution, monopoly on payments, and imposition of taxes on in-app commerce MUST BE STOPPED.
THREAD: (1) As per the ACM decision, Apple has confirmed that dating app providers will be able to include an in-app link directing customers to the developer's website to complete a purchase, or use a third party payment system within the app. https://developer.apple.com/ ...
@Def64Gamer @Pete_S_Official Apple's position has no place in a free economy or a free world. It's simply a monopoly in one market (hardware) using its power of exclusion to impose a monopoly rent on a separate market (in-app payment processing). It's absolutely wrong.
@TimSweeneyEpic I think your mostly right, however they should still receive some compensation for hosting/delivering using App Store if the choose. What means of compensation can you suggest being fair and reasonable for both parties?
@Pete_S_Official We're happy to pay for all of the bandwidth used by our apps. We're happy to pay for all human review time. We're happy to pay for any ads we choose to run. And we're happy to pay market based markups on these things set by genuine competition.
What Apple is doing here is rational and even if Epic had won its U.S. case, it would merely have been a first step and the next battle would have been over a new set of Apple rules. That's also what's going to happen in Korea, where Google is playing that game already. https://t…
Apple responds to Dutch antitrust regulator's order to open up app store payments. Requires apps to withdraw global version & put local only v in NL store, request third party payment permissions, AND still pay Apple an undisclosed tax on all transactions https://developer.apple.…
It's amazing how much work Apple will put into trying to twist out of actually following through on being ordered to do something it doesn't want to do. This new payment API tracking stuff is insane. https://twitter.com/...
Looks like Apple went with the worst version of the implementation, forcing separate apps for each storefront and having a min iOS version (due to new entitlement requirement) https://twitter.com/...
Apple app developers: How hard will this be? “Apps distributed pursuant to those entitlements must only be available in the Netherlands. As a result, dating app developers using these entitlements will need to submit a separate app binary for iOS or iPadOS” https://twitter.com/..…
For the first time ever, Apple is letting certain apps in the App Store use payment platforms outside of its own (Apple currently takes a 15-30% cut of every in-app transaction). Check out which payment companies are positioned to benefit from this change: https://www.businessins…
A very small brick was just removed from Apple's walled garden. Will Stripe, PayPal, Paddle, and others squeeze through? https://www.businessinsider.com/ ... via @businessinsider @diamondnagasiu
What Apple writes: “We do not believe these orders are in our users' best interests.” What they don't write: “Using 3rd party payments providers mean we cannot take a 30% cut from every transaction. Not that we provided much user protection or refunds in exchange for this fee.” h…
Something small is happening in the Netherlands this weekend. It's huge for Apple's App Store, though https://www.businessinsider.com/ ... via @businessinsider @diamondnagasiu
Netherlands forces Apple to allow dating apps to use other payment processors instead of Apple getting a 30% cut from required use of their IAP system. Apple's announcement makes using credit cards in apps sound as scary as clicking on a phishing link. https://developer.apple.com…
Dating apps in the Netherlands will be allowed to offer alternative payment systems directly in the app, not just link out to web. However, apps need special entitlements and must maintain a wholly separate binary for the region; obviously inconvenient. https://9to5mac.com/...