Apple dodges new Dutch ruling on dating app fees (for now)

In June, a Dutch court upheld a prior antitrust ruling against Apple, in a case involving dating apps and the App Store commission. Today, the case was put on pause, as the country’s watchdog awaits the outcome of Apple’s DMA negotiations with the European Commission.

A bit of context

This case was originally brought by the Dutch Authority for Consumers and Markets (ACM), accusing Apple of “unreasonable conditions in its App Store”, as it collected its 30% IAP fee, while not allowing for external payments.

Although Apple agreed to loosen payment rules for dating apps in the Netherlands, the company was fined €50 million, for which it appealed. The appeal was judged last month, and Apple lost, which brings us to today.

Today

As reported by Reuters:

Dutch antitrust regulator ACM said in a statement on Friday it has postponed a ruling on Apple (AAPL.O), over fees the iPhone maker charges dating app providers as it awaits the outcome of ongoing discussions between Apple and the European Commission over a similar issue.

As Reuters also reported earlier this week, the EU is set to accept Apple’s latest App Store rules, which would put an end to a back-and-forth that has lasted years.

Today’s news indicates that either the Dutch antitrust watchdog is also satisfied with the recent changes (which introduced new tiers for commissions, fees, and App Store-related services such as automatic updates and editorial promotion), or it’s waiting until the changes are final before deciding how much further it’ll want to push.

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