Apple's moves to appease Dutch App Store watchdog declared 'insufficient' ahead of new penalty

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Apple Store Cutout Nyc Update
Apple Store Cutout Nyc Update (Image credit: iMore)

What you need to know

  • A Dutch watchdog has said that Apple's App Store changes are insufficient and a new penalty is being drawn up.
  • Apple has been told to allow dating apps to link to external payments and account management options.

Apple has been told that its moves to try to appease a Dutch watchdog over its App Store business model have proven "insufficient" and that it should expect another penalty. It's hoped that the new penalty will have the "desired result."

Apple had previously been told to allow developers of dating apps available via the Dutch App Store to provide links to handle payments and account management via the open internet — not just the App Store. Apple found itself on the end of a weekly 5 million euro fine that was designed to run until it made the changes required to allow just that. However, the Dutch now believe that simply isn't happening and that all changes made to this date have been "insufficient" — leading them to put a new penalty together.

Journalist Nando Kasteleijn reported on the news via Twitter.

Via machine translation:

The Netherlands Authority for Consumers & Markets (ACM) concludes that the changes Apple made on March 30 has made to the conditions for dating apps in the Netherlands are insufficient. Apple still uses unreasonable conditions for dating app providers in the Netherlands. That appears from own research, expert advice and consultation with market parties.The ACM does see an improvement in the proposals that Apple makes, but they are not yet sufficient to comply with European and Dutch regulations. In the meantime, ACM will remain concerned about this conversation with Apple.Because the previous order subject to a penalty did not have the desired result, ACM is preparing and new order subject to penalty.About the details that Apple does not yet comply with and the content of the new cease and desist order we cannot make announcements until we publish them. That could take several weeks.

As for the original penalty, Apple has at least made attempts to comply with the requirements laid out — albeit not to the satisfaction of the ACM.

It's too early to know what will come next, as the ACM statement says. We'll need to wait for the new penalty to be written up which could "take several weeks," according to that statement.

Oliver Haslam
Oliver Haslam
Contributor

Oliver Haslam has written about Apple and the wider technology business for more than a decade with bylines on How-To Geek, PC Mag, iDownloadBlog, and many more. He has also been published in print for Macworld, including cover stories. At iMore, Oliver is involved in daily news coverage and, not being short of opinions, has been known to 'explain' those thoughts in more detail, too. Having grown up using PCs and spending far too much money on graphics card and flashy RAM, Oliver switched to the Mac with a G5 iMac and hasn't looked back. Since then he's seen the growth of the smartphone world, backed by iPhone, and new product categories come and go. Current expertise includes iOS, macOS, streaming services, and pretty much anything that has a battery or plugs into a wall. Oliver also covers mobile gaming for iMore, with Apple Arcade a particular focus. He's been gaming since the Atari 2600 days and still struggles to comprehend the fact he can play console quality titles on his pocket computer.