- Apple was ordered in January to let dating apps in the Netherlands use non-Apple payment methods.
- The company has fought the order, and submitted its most recent proposal more than a month ago.
- iOS developers have been watching the case closely, and say they're growing impatient with the lack of action.
Thursday marked one month since Apple sent its latest proposal to a Dutch regulator to try complying with a months-old order to let dating apps in the Netherlands use non-Apple payment methods for in-app transactions.
This is the longest that the regulator, the Netherlands Authority on Consumers and Markets, has considered one of Apple's proposals. It had previously rejected each of Apple's proposals around one week after the company submitted them.
"We wish to conduct this assessment as efficiently as possible, but, at the same time, we must conduct the assessment with great care," Murco Mijnlieff, ACM's spokesperson, told Insider. "As part of that assessment, we are in contact with other market participants and experts, seeking their opinions."
An Apple spokesperson said the company is currently working with the regulator on it.
The ACM has fined Apple 5 million euros for each week the company was non-compliant with its order; the fines now total 50 million euros (about $57 million), the maximum amount possible. It also previously slammed the iPhone maker for requiring developers to essentially create a new version of their app if they wanted to use third-party payment platforms, calling it out for creating new barriers for developers.
App developers around the world have been closely watching Apple's tussle with the Netherlands, as its outcome could create ripples across the industry. Four iOS developers spoke with Insider about their hopes and apprehensions. They said they wished the regulator would do more to put pressure on Apple, and had been frustrated by the drawn-out standoff.
"A lot of the stuff that [Apple's] been saying just broadly over the last year has demonstrated a — I don't wanna say like antipathy towards developers — but just very low regard for them," Ali Alkhatib, the director of the Center for Applied Data Ethics at the University of San Francisco, told Insider. "From developers that I've been hearing about or hearing from, it's not making them feel like Apple values the developer community."
Máté Kovács, an independent developer who created Teleprompter, said he didn't think the 5 million euro fine — capped at 50 million — is enough to put pressure on the company, especially compared to how much money Apple generates from the App Store.
He said "it feels so wrong," since the relatively low fine makes it profitable for Apple to ignore the ruling and that the situation currently feels as though neither side wants to resolve the issue.
Big developer concerns, like side-loading, are unaddressed
Andy Ibanez K, an iOS developer in Bolivia, said he understood why Apple opposed the regulatory pressure, pointing to how the company has had full control of its App Store since it debuted in 2008.
"I personally don't think that alternative payment systems are that big of a deal because right now most developers are getting a very good deal with Apple," Ibanez said. "But this fight is important regardless — even if I don't care about alternative payment systems — if this paves the way for something more important."
He said that developers take bigger issue with Apple's communication practices and stance on side-loading, or the practice of downloading apps from sources besides the App Store.
An uphill battle with no end in sight
Alkhatib, of the University of San Francisco, said the current situation could spell trouble for other countries looking to regulate the App Store.
Apple likely does not see the Netherlands as that big of a market, he speculated, so it could possibly take the drastic step of pulling out of the country or even be banned for flouting the regulators.
Alkhatib said, "It's incredibly frustrating to see that Apple is using whatever argument they think works in the moment without necessarily recognizing that other people are hearing it and other people are seeing sort of how little they — how poorly they — regard the stakeholders that are also affected."
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