Apple has written a letter arguing that the change it has offered in the Dutch App Store complies with the law, despite that fact that the antitrust regulator has rejected the proposal as ‘not serious.’
The latest development follows the European Union suggesting that Apple was happy to pay fines rather than properly comply with antitrust rules …
Background
We’ve previously explained the background to the dispute:
Apple is facing antitrust pressure both home and abroad in respect to its monopoly on the sale of iOS apps.
In the Netherlands, the company was told that it must allow alternative payment methods for dating apps in the country. The company reluctantly agreed, but made it as hard as possible for developers to take advantage of the fact.
“Developers will need to create and maintain a completely separate app binary which includes special entitlements, and is only made available in the Netherlands App Store […] As part of requesting the entitlement, applications must declare what payment processor they intend to use, purchase support URLs, and other information.”
The company followed this by saying that developers would still have to pay a 27% commission if they used a third-party payment platform, making it more expensive to opt out than to stick with Apple. Dutch regulators responded by saying that this was not a “serious proposal” – and levied a fifth fine, taking the total to €25M ($28M).
No sign of Apple compromise on Dutch App Store change
Despite the Dutch regulator rejecting Apple’s proposed change, Reuters reports that Apple has written a letter claiming that the company has complied with the law, and should not be subjected to further fines.
Apple argued in a letter to the Dutch consumer watchdog obtained by Reuters on Monday that it has complied with an order to open its App Store to alternative payment providers for dating apps in the Netherlands […]
The letter from Apple to the ACM dated Feb. 28 said the solution it has offered would require only a “minor technical change” with no additional costs.
Here is a copy of the letter in full, obtained by 9to5Mac:
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