Devs are mad at Apple’s ‘reduction’ in Dutch App Store fees — and rightly so
Is the how future looks like?
How did Apple get here?
Last year, the Duch Authority for Consumers and Markets (ACM) foundApple guilty of breaching antitrust lawsby forcing developers to use its own system for in-app purchases, as well as taking a 15% (for developers who earn less than $1M per year) or 30% cut.
Notably, the watchdog’s ruling only focused on dating apps in the Netherlands. In January, Apple agreed tolet developers use alternative payment methods, but provided no details on how this’d work.
This changed over the weekend. The company issued guidelines that require a separate binary for the Dutch app store, and a 27% commission — even if you use a non-Apple payment processing system.
What are the requirements to adopt a new in-app payment system?
Here are some of the conditions Apple has specified for Dutch dating app developers:
This by itself is a lot to parse, but there are even more conditions and complexities. You can read about them further on Apple’sdeveloper support page.
Is it really worth all this hassle?
The whole process is complicated, and with the new commission rate, it’s not apparent there are many benefits to switching. This is made even more laughable when you consider developers will have to pay additional fees to the new payment processor:
If you’re a popular dating app that’s only available on the Dutch market, a few extra percent of revenue could be helpful.
But if you distribute apps to multiple markets and the Netherlands is only a minor revenue provider? You might want to avoid the hassle.
We’ve reached out to some of the biggest dating apps in the Netherlands, Bumble, InnerCircle, and Match Group to understand their next steps. We’ll update the story if we hear back from them.
InnerCircle’s managing Director, Masha Kodden, said Apple’s fees are very high for smaller developers:
The way ahead
Apple’s response to the Dutch regulation is one of many countries where it’s facing antitrust cases related to its App Store monopoly.
Soon, it needs to provide guidelines for developers inJapan and South Korea. If Apple takes a similar approach to how it’s dealt with the Dutch dating app situation, developers won’t be happy.
On this Andy Yen — ProtonMail CEO and founder — said that “this is yet another example of Apple exploiting its position and squeezing every penny possible out of developers, regardless of the impact they have on innovation, competition or consumers.”
He added that this latest incident also points towards a need for “far-reaching antitrust laws” that look at the bigger picture of app distribution and self-prefencing.
Last month,ACM fined Applefor failing to comply with its ruling. Now that the company has formalized the changes, we’ll have to see if the regulatory body scrutinizes it further.
One thing is clear, Apple is not giving up its control on the App Store easily. And even when it’s forced to make concessions, it’s doing so in a way that makes life deliberately difficult for developers.
The question is if anyone’s going to stop Apple.
Story byIvan Mehta
Ivan covers Big Tech, India, policy, AI, security, platforms, and apps for TNW. That’s one heck of a mixed bag. He likes to say “Bleh.“Ivan covers Big Tech, India, policy, AI, security, platforms, and apps for TNW. That’s one heck of a mixed bag. He likes to say “Bleh.”
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