A Dutch court has confirmed a 2021 ruling by a Dutch consumer watchdog, saying that Apple had abused its dominant position by imposing unfair conditions on providers of dating apps in the App Store, reports Reuters.
The tech giant has to pay a fine of 50 million euros (about US$58 million) for failure to comply with changes it had ordered to Apple’s app store to end practices it said violated European Union antitrust laws, the article adds.
The Rotterdam District Court ruled that the Dutch Authority for Consumers and Markets (ACM) was therefore right to impose an order subject to a penalty for non-compliance, the article adds. The court ruled that ACM was right in finding that dating app providers had to use Apple’s own payment system, were not allowed to refer to payment options outside the App Store, and had to pay a 30% commission (15% for small providers) to Apple.
Not surprisingly, Apple plans to appeal. “This ruling undermines the technology and tools we’ve created to benefit developers and protect users’ privacy and security, and we plan to appeal”, a company spokesperson told Reuters.
