A Netherlands district court has upheld a 2021 decision by the country’s consumer and competition regulator to levy fines against Apple over its App Store practices, in one of the tech giant’s many ongoing challenges to its mobile business model.

Rotterdam District Court confirmed a 2021 finding by the Dutch Authority for Consumers and Markets (ACM) that Apple had abused its dominant position to impose unfair conditions on dating app makers using the App Store.

The decision found that the ACM’s fines against Apple were therefore justified.

App store rules

The court upheld the ACM’s finding that dating app providers were required to use Apple’s own payment system, could not send users to payments outside the App Store and had to pay a fee of 30 percent in most cases.

Apple said it would appeal.

“This ruling undermines the technology and tools we’ve created to benefit developers and protect users’ privacy and security,” the company said in an emailed statement.

While the case is limited to dating apps, it could have broader implications for the fees charged by mobile app stores, an issue that has come increasingly into focus in the years since the ACM’s original findings.

In 2023 the ACM said it said it had rejected Apple’s objections to 50 million euros (£42m) in fines the agency had issued over the dating app case.

The agency said at the time that Apple had complied with most of its app store conditions in the antitrust case that began in 2021, but that the firm had not met an undisclosed condition, which was understood to be Apple’s commission fees.

Competition rules

The company had made changes to its app store in the Netherlands, including offering alternative forms of payment for dating apps in the country.

The fees have been criticised by developers including Epic Games, which has been engaged for years on a legal battle with Apple over the issue.

Apple’s App Store practices have also come under fire for alleged non-compliance with the EU’s Digital Services Act, which requires companies to offer alternative ways of installing apps.