On Friday, the European Commission accused Apple of violating EU competition laws. According to the Commission, Apple abused its position of control over the distribution of music streaming apps – through its App Store – to favor its music streaming service, Apple Music. The investigation into Apple was opened in June last year after a complaint from Spotify, which competes with Apple in the streaming music market.
Our preliminary conclusion: @Apple is in breach of EU competition law. @AppleMusic competes with other music streaming services. But @Apple charges high commission fees on rivals in the App store & forbids them to inform of alternative subscription options. Consumers losing out.
– Margrethe Vestager (@vestager) April 30, 2021
The main accusation that the Commission makes against Apple is that applications that want to be present in the Apple Store are forced to use Apple's payment system to distribute paid digital content: with this system, Apple charges a 30 percent commission. streaming service providers on all subscriptions, which providers in most cases charge consumers for.
The second is that Apple does not inform its users as it should about Apple Music alternatives for music streaming, which are generally cheaper. According to the Commission, this would prevent Apple from freely choosing alternatives to Apple Music.
In a statement, Apple replied that “at the center of this case is Spotify's request to be able to advertise alternative offers on their iOS app, a practice that no store in the world allows”, and added that “the argument of the Commission in favor of Spotify is the opposite of fair competition “.
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