Netherlands: Dutch investigation upheld despite investigation by the European Commission into Apple's alleged abuse of dominance regarding App Store

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Dutch investigation upheld despite investigation by the European Commission into Apple's alleged abuse of dominance regarding App Store

On 22 June 2021, the Dutch Authority for Consumers & Markets (ACM) published a statement that its investigations will be continued despite the fact that the European Commission (EC) has also opened an investigation into Apple's App Store. European rules state that EU member countries are not permitted to conduct investigations into the same company and the same matter as the European Commission. In this case, however, there is a difference in the scope of the investigation, which allows the ACM to continue its investigation. Specifically, the ACM is examining Apple's potential abuse of dominance regarding the App Store's terms and conditions, while the EC is focusing more on potential barriers Apple has set up protecting its own apps from apps representing direct competition. The ACM is therefore focussing more on the potential preferential treatment of Apple's own apps, the mandatory use of the App Store as a marketplace for app developers and the mandatory commission fee that comes with that obligation. All those aforementioned practices represent potential violations of competition law. The investigation by the ACM is expected to be concluded by the end of the year.

Original source

Scope

Policy Area
Competition
Policy Instrument
Unilateral conduct regulation
Regulated Economic Activity
software provider: app stores
Implementation Level
national
Government Branch
executive
Government Body
competition authority

Complete timeline of this policy change

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2019-04-11
under deliberation

On 11 April 2019, the Dutch Authority for Consumers & Markets (ACM) opened up an investigation into…

2021-06-22
under deliberation

On 22 June 2021, the Dutch Authority for Consumers & Markets (ACM) published a statement that its i…

2021-12-24
in force

On 24 December 2021, the Dutch Authority for Consumers & Markets (ACM) has held, as part of its inv…

2022-01-17
under deliberation

On 17 January 2022, the Dutch Authority for Consumers & Markets (ACM) announced that it was notifie…

2022-01-24
in force

The Dutch Authority for Consumers and Markets (ACM) has ruled that Apple has failed to meet the ACM…

2022-02-14
in force

On 14 February 2022, the Dutch Authority for Consumers and Markets (ACM) announced another fine of …

2022-02-21
in force

On 21 February 2022, the Dutch Authority for Consumers and Markets (ACM) imposed a fine of EUR 5 mi…

2022-03-28
in force

On 28 March 2022, the Dutch Authority for Consumers and Markets (ACM) imposed a fine of EUR 5 milli…

2022-05-02
under investigation

On 2 May 2022, the Dutch Authority for Consumers and Markets (ACM) rejected Apple's second proposal…

2022-06-11
concluded

On 11 June 2022, the Dutch Authority for Consumers and Markets (ACM) announced that it reviewed the…

2023-10-02
in force

On 2 October 2023, the Dutch Authority for Consumers and Markets (ACM) announced it had rejected th…