Apple plans to charge dating app developers using alternative payment systems a 27% commission in The Netherlands, instead of its usual 30% for in-app purchases
Apple today provided some additional details about how it will allow dating apps in the Netherlands to offer alternative payment systems …
9to5MacBenjamin Mayo
Context & Ripple Effects
Apple had already agreed to let Dutch dating-app developers offer alternative payment options after an order backed by potential fines. The new fee terms turn that access into a narrowly scoped economic exception rather than a broad change to App Store payments.
Dutch dating-app developers can route eligible purchases through alternative payment systems, but Apple charges a 27% commission rather than the standard 30% in-app-purchase rate.
Apple preserves most of its existing take rate on the transactions affected by the Dutch dating-app exception.
Second-order effects
The three-percentage-point gap defines the immediate financial incentive for eligible developers to adopt alternative payments, rather than eliminating Apple’s share of those sales.
The Dutch case establishes a model in which a regulator-driven payment alternative can be paired with a platform commission, shifting the dispute from whether alternatives are allowed to what rate is permissible.
If replicated in other rulings, platform payment regulation is likely to focus increasingly on constraining the terms of mandated alternative payment access, not solely on opening a payment link.
The trend: App-store payment regulation is evolving toward regulated platform take rates, where alternative checkout access and the platform’s residual commission are negotiated together.
And after you pay your ~3% to your payment processor, Apple's 27% commission takes you right back up to 30%. Glorious. Come on, THIS is comedy. Amazing, ridiculous comedy. I'd be surprised if a single app ever took them up on this. (And that's exactly by design.)
Apple has been legally compelled to allow dating apps to bypass in-app purchases in the Netherlands, so it's doing that - and charging anyone who does so 27% of their sales. https://developer.apple.com/ ...
You can just FEEL how much they despise having to do any of this. They're making non-App-Store payments as painful, expensive, and clunky as the regulators will tolerate. It's so, so good. It can be summarized perfectly with a single character: 🖕 https://developer.apple.com/ ...
Even if you're not a dating app in the Netherlands, this is worth a read. This is almost certainly how Apple plans to comply with ALL external-purchase regulations, until and unless they're forced to be more permissive: https://developer.apple.com/ ...
Absolutely vile. This says everything about @tim_cook's Apple and what it thinks of developers. I hope the company gets exactly what it deserves. Everybody on their executive team should be ashamed, and some of them should not be here when it's all over. We all see you https://tw…
Apple will comply with the law in Netherlands to allow dating apps to use alternative payment systems but will still charge 27% commission. After Stripe fees of 2.9%, it will cost developers money to not use Apple IAPs. This defeats the purpose of the law https://9to5mac.com/...