An Even More Expensive Dutch Apple
Back in late January we noted that battle between Epic Games (pvt) and Apple (AAPL) over 3rd party payment restrictions for applications in the Apple store has blossomed into a global ‘review’ of Apple’s store practices by a number of governments. The ruckus was over Apple’s draconian policies concerning the use of ‘alternative’ payment methods on the app store where Apple App Store application developers forbidden from selling subscriptions directly or outside of the AAS in-app purchasing system, but had to give 30% of that subscription revenue to Apple, unless the user signs up for longer than 1 year, when the fee drops to 15%.
Apple made some minor concessions to what is a mounting tirade against such limiting policies however Japan’s Fair Trade Commission forced Apple to allow some applications in the store to direct users to their own websites to sign up for subscriptions, while South Korea passed legislation that banned all application store operators from forcing developers to use in-store payment processing however just before Christmas last year the Netherlands Authority for Consumers and Markets published an order requiring Apple to “adjust the unreasonable conditions in its App Store that apply to dating-app providers”, as Dutch dating app providers are currently unable to choose a payment system. The ACM went further in that the required Apple to adjust the system within 60 days or it would be fined €5m per week, up to a maximum of €50m.
Apple has made some attempts to comply with the new order although they were not enough to satisfy the ACM which continued to levy weekly fines against the company and last week the European Union published its Digital Markets Act, which details requirements that Apple and other firms (Google (GOOG) tends to be a 2nd focus) to offer alternatives to the App Store and its payment system restrictions., with those rules to be implemented by October. It seems that the momentum against what many consider anti-competitive practices by Apple are not going away easily. To make matters worse, the fines in the Netherlands, which we originally believed would max out at €50m, do not, and the Dutch authorities have the option to increase the weekly rate once €50m is hit, which should be in early April.
Apple made some minor concessions to what is a mounting tirade against such limiting policies however Japan’s Fair Trade Commission forced Apple to allow some applications in the store to direct users to their own websites to sign up for subscriptions, while South Korea passed legislation that banned all application store operators from forcing developers to use in-store payment processing however just before Christmas last year the Netherlands Authority for Consumers and Markets published an order requiring Apple to “adjust the unreasonable conditions in its App Store that apply to dating-app providers”, as Dutch dating app providers are currently unable to choose a payment system. The ACM went further in that the required Apple to adjust the system within 60 days or it would be fined €5m per week, up to a maximum of €50m.
Apple has made some attempts to comply with the new order although they were not enough to satisfy the ACM which continued to levy weekly fines against the company and last week the European Union published its Digital Markets Act, which details requirements that Apple and other firms (Google (GOOG) tends to be a 2nd focus) to offer alternatives to the App Store and its payment system restrictions., with those rules to be implemented by October. It seems that the momentum against what many consider anti-competitive practices by Apple are not going away easily. To make matters worse, the fines in the Netherlands, which we originally believed would max out at €50m, do not, and the Dutch authorities have the option to increase the weekly rate once €50m is hit, which should be in early April.
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