Apple is adjusting the policy in the App Store for dating apps in the Netherlands for the umpteenth time, but is it now definitive enough?
The yo-yoing around Apple and App Store policies seems to be coming to an end. For the umpteenth time, the tech giant has made adjustments in a short time to the way dating apps in the Netherlands are allowed to earn money. It is now up to the Netherlands Authority for Consumers & Markets (ACM) to approve the policy definitively or not.
Is Apple nice to dating apps in the Netherlands?
Applications have been allowed to use their own payment system in the App Store for some time now. But there was a strange rule for dating apps in the Netherlands that made it according to the ACM became unreasonable. Dating apps had to release a separate App Store variant with us to make use of this option.
This week Apple has changed its virtual store policy for the umpteenth time. This had to be done by now, given that the ACM repeatedly imposed fines on the company. If all goes well, it will finally stay with this construction. The ACM must now decide on this and may impose even more fines. But Apple isn’t satisfied either way.
Not very much
Because although Apple now grants dating apps in the Netherlands a payment system from third parties, the tech giant does not do this wholeheartedly. The company is objecting because the new system would be “not in the interest of the privacy and data security of users”.
Apple often plays this card; under the guise of user safety, external systems are not allowed. The problem is that this affects the freedom of choice of users and developers.