Apple allows developers in the Netherlands to offer payment options

Apple will reluctantly allow dating app developers in the Netherlands to use alternative payment methods in the App Store, but he doesn’t like it, and the account hasn’t been sorted out yet.

In updating your developer blog on Friday, Apple said dating app developers will have two new optional ones “Rights” in the App Store, which sounds strangely medieval, but OK. In addition to using Apple’s in-app payment system — which almost all developers around the world are required to use, some exceptions-they they will also be able to include an in-app link that directs users to their website to make a purchase or use a third-party payment system in the app.

According to Apple, developers can choose only one of two rights and you have to ask Apple for that. For those who want to continue using Apple’s in-app payment system, where The company reduces between 15% and 30% of each purchase, no action is required.

“We are concerned that these changes could jeopardize the user experience and create new threats to user privacy and data security,” Apple said in a statement. developer blog, noting that he designed the App Store as a safe place to trust. “In the meantime, we are obliged to make the mandate changes that we are initiating today and we will provide additional information soon.

Apple further stressed that some features of the App Store will not be available to users dating app developers seeking rights “in part because we can’t verify the security and security of payments that take place outside of the App Store’s private and secure payment system.”

It was added that Apple will not be able to help customers with refunds, purchase history, subscription management or other problems encountered when using alternative payment methods.

“You will be responsible for resolving such customer issues,” Apple said.

(Something tells me that the company would probably have written “you” in capital letters had it not been concerned about appearance).

New payment options are not yet available in the Netherlands, but will be “available soon”, the company said.

Considering Apple’s attitude about payments in the App Store, as well as the above statements, you can probably assume that he did not offer new rights out of the kindness of his Big Tech heart. It’s an apple be forced to give Alternative payment options for Dutch Consumer and Market Administration application developers, also known as ACM.

In the decision published in late December, the regulator ruled that the terms Apple applied to dating app developers were unreasonable. The ACM said some app providers depend on the App Store and that Apple, which is in a dominant position, is taking over the advantage of this dependence by requiring them to use its in-app payment system. The regulator gave Apple two months to give these developers additional payment options and threatened to fine him up to $ 56.5 million if he did not comply.

Apple is appealing the ACM’s decision to a higher court.