Published by Global Banking & Finance Review®
Posted on June 16, 2025
2 min readLast updated: January 23, 2026
Add as preferred source on GoogleA Dutch court upheld a ruling against Apple for abusing its dominant position in dating apps, confirming unfair conditions. Apple plans to appeal.
AMSTERDAM (Reuters) -A Dutch court on Monday confirmed a 2021 consumer watchdog 's ruling saying that Apple had abused its dominant position by imposing unfair conditions on providers of dating apps in the App Store.
The Rotterdam District Court ruled that the Dutch Authority for Consumers and Markets (ACM) was therefore right to impose an order subject to a penalty for non-compliance.
The court ruled that ACM was right in finding that dating app providers had to use Apple's own payment system, were not allowed to refer to payment options outside the App Store, and had to pay a 30% commission (15% for small providers) to Apple.
Apple said it was planning to appeal.
"This ruling undermines the technology and tools we've created to benefit developers and protect users' privacy and security, and we plan to appeal", a company spokesperson told Reuters.
ACM in 2021 fined Apple 50 million euros ($58 million) for failure to comply with changes it had ordered to Apple's app store to end practices it said violated European Union antitrust laws.
($1 = 0.8616 euros)
(Reporting by Foo Yun Chee, GV De Clercq; Editing by Benoit Van Overstraeten)
The Dutch court confirmed that Apple abused its dominant position by imposing unfair conditions on dating app providers, as stated by the Dutch Authority for Consumers and Markets (ACM).
In 2021, the ACM fined Apple 50 million euros ($58 million) for failing to comply with mandated changes to its app store practices that violated EU antitrust laws.
Apple announced plans to appeal the ruling, stating that it undermines the technology and tools created to benefit developers and protect users' privacy and security.
Dating app providers were required to use Apple's own payment system, were prohibited from referring to payment options outside the App Store, and faced a 30% commission on transactions.
The article was reported by Reuters, with contributions from Foo Yun Chee and GV De Clercq, and edited by Benoit Van Overstraeten.
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