Apple relaxes stand: Reduces commission for in-app payments by 3 percent

Popular tech company Apple Inc. on Friday relaxed regulations of in-app payment systems of dating apps in the Netherlands. This regulation will allow the Dutch to initiate payments through third-party systems.

In legal trials with the Dutch Authorities for Consumers and Markets (ACM), the government had accused Apple of violating Dutch competition laws that insisted the company permit dating applications to use third-party payment processing systems.

Apple is already in the eye of global antitrust concerns for its dominance in the tech industry.

Match Group Inc., the parent company of Tinder has claimed that the 30 percent shares mandated by Apple for in-app payments are extremely high.

Apple has now reduced this to 3 percent which now mandates paying only 27 percent of the commission. It has also given discounts for using third-party payment systems. The tech giant on Friday confirmed that the 3 percent reduction is also applicable to those who pay only a 15 percent commission to which they will have to pay 12 percent from now.

The Dutch government had also insisted Apple make certain changes in the system during third-party payments. Apple disagreed with the litigation saying, "We don't believe some of these changes are in the best interests of our users' privacy or data security."

The company had earlier included options signalling the users when they get involved with a third party during payments. This option that also allowed the users to back out from making payments was rejected by the Dutch government.

Investors worldwide are discussing the impact of the antitrust case on Apple's shares in the global market.