© Reuters. FILE PHOTO: An Apple logo hangs above the entrance to the Apple store on Fifth Avenue in the Manhattan borough of New York City, July 21, 2015. REUTERS/Mike Segar/File Photo
AMSTERDAM (Reuters) – The Dutch consumer watchdog is questioning the fees that Apple (NASDAQ charges dating app providers in the Netherlands as part of its long-running case against the U.S. technology company over dominance of its app store, according to a presentation report seen by Reuters.
Bloomberg News reported on the filing on Tuesday.
Although the case is limited to dating apps in the Netherlands, it is seen as having the potential to set a precedent for other markets.
The Authority for Consumers and Markets (ACM) of the Netherlands fined the company 50 million euros ($53 million) in 2021 for failing to comply with the changes it had ordered in the Apple app store to end practices that she claimed violated European Union antitrust laws.
Apple denied wrongdoing and appealed the fines in a case still before a Rotterdam court. Apple has agreed to make changes to the App Store, including opening up alternative payment methods for dating apps in the Netherlands.
In February 2022, Apple cut commissions for dating app makers in the Netherlands from 30% to 27%. The ACM never revealed whether it thought this was a satisfactory change.
This month, the ACM published a summary of its rebuttals to Apple’s objections dated July 13, 2023, noting that there remained an outstanding dispute that it could not disclose publicly for legal reasons.
According to the ACM’s fuller arguments on July 13, now seen by Reuters, the undisclosed dispute concerned commissions.
“Apple… harms dating app providers by charging them an additional, and inexplicably higher, fee for the same services” that it charges other types of app makers, it says in the document.
An ACM spokeswoman said Tuesday that the agency cannot comment while the case is before the court. No date has been set for the decision.
Apple did not respond to requests for comment.
