Apple in Breach of EU Competition Law, European Commission Finds

[MacRumors]

Apple has been found to be in breach of EU competition law with Apple Music, according to the preliminary findings of the European Commission. The charges relate to a two-year-old antitrust dispute initiated by Spotify.

The European Commission was expected to bring charges against Apple over concerns that its App Store rules break EU competition law this week, and ahead of a formal verdict, Margrethe Vestager, the EU's digital competition chief tweeted the preliminary findings of the commission:

https://twitter.com/x/status/1388071379094982659

Apple has been formally told of the conclusion, according to an EU Commission press release.

In 2019, Spotify filed a complaint with the European Commission, alleging that Apple enforces App Store rules that "purposely limit choice and stifle innovation at the expense of the user experience," accusing the company of "acting as both a player and referee to deliberately disadvantage other app developers."

Spotify highlighted that Apple's 30 percent commission on ‌App Store‌ purchases, including in-app subscriptions, forces the music streaming service to charge existing subscribers $12.99 per month for its Premium plan on the ‌App Store‌, just to collect the $9.99 per month it usually charges.

Spotify argues this gives Apple an unfair advantage because it's unable to compete with Apple Music's standard $9.99 per month price within the ‌‌App Store‌‌.

If Spotify chooses not to collect payments via the ‌‌App Store‌‌, Apple purportedly "applies a series of technical and experience-limiting restrictions" on the company. It was also said that Apple was "locking Spotify and other competitors out of Apple services such as Siri, HomePod, and Apple Watch," thereby making ‌Apple Music‌ a more attractive option for subscribers.

The EU is expected to issue Apple with a charge sheet before the summer. It is not yet known what exactly the EU's sanctions could involve, but it has been suggested that Apple could be forced to pay a fine or make changes to its ‌App Store‌ business model in Europe to foster greater competition.

The Spotify antitrust case is one of several opened by the European Commission into Apple's business practices in June last year. Apple has denied allegations of anti-competitive behavior, and said at the time of Spotify's complaint that its rival was using "its financial motivations in misleading rhetoric."

Article Link: Apple in Breach of EU Competition Law, European Commission Finds

 

[BvizioN]

Oh, the old EU bureaucrats doing their thing.....

"App store & forbids them to inform of alternative subscription options"
Yes, because regular walk in (or online) stores all display "cheaper" alternatives or alternative places where customers can get the same product, right? Typical idiotic EU practices acting as they care about consumers and not for their fat pockets.

 

[DinkThifferent]

Well record companies also had to pay music stores to have their cd's displayed... A-brand cornflakes is also payed for by the manufacturer to be displayed on the shelf next to the Walmart cornflakes.

You can subscribe to Spotify through their website.

 

[vagos]

The EU is right on this one. Time for Apple to change.

 

[iSRS]

"locking Spotify and other competitors out of Apple services such as Siri, HomePod, and Apple Watch,"

I’m not sure what this means. I actually like Spotify’s Watch app better. Same with CarPlay.

 

[acorntoy]

So Europe is helping a European company.

Airbus Vs Boeing tic for tac seems reminiscent here.

 

[Glideslope]

No news here, move on.........

 

[PBG4 Dude]

I’m not sure what this means. I actually like Spotify’s Watch app better. Same with CarPlay.

The suit was filed in 2019, when Apple was allegedly keeping Spotify off Apple Watch. The start of this suit is probably why, as of iOS 14.5, you can finally select a default music service that isn’t Apple Music and it will work with Siri.

 

[WiseAJ]

Yeah, Spotify is hurting so bad they have more subscriptions than Apple Music.

 

[Glideslope]

So Europe is helping a European company.

Airbus Vs Boeing tic for tac seems reminiscent here.

Excellent analogy. Although the Dueling Tariffs have since been lifted as Airline Pressure told them all to act like Free Market Participants. Protectionist policies will eventually seriously hurt the EU. I look forward to it.

 

[diamond3]

Isn’t there always going to be some advantage? What’s the solution? Because Apple has their own service, they can’t charge Spotify a fee to put their service on the App Store?

Where does this end? I’m in the position that Apple should have an advantage because they created the platform.

 

[Quu]

I have a feeling all these court cases against Apple are going to result in the same thing. Sideloading must be allowed, payment options other than Apples must be allowed etc

I just can't see Apple winning somehow.

 

[acorntoy]

Excellent analogy. Although the Dueling Tariffs have since been lifted as Airline Pressure told them all to act like Free Market Participants. Protectionist policies will eventually seriously hurt the EU. I look forward to it.

Airlines like spirit still fight like animals for US made A320’s because it relieves many taxes over European models, and the A220 wouldn’t exist without the fight. Either way though I agree the European policies are not productive.

 

[acorntoy]

Yeah, Spotify is hurting so bad they have more subscriptions than Apple Music.

They just don’t have Spotify OS to run it all on.

which sounds….. frankly awful.

 

[TheMacDaddy1]

The EU is right on this one. Time for Apple to change.

Or figure out how Netflix is so successful on the App store. All payments to my Netflix account do not go through Apple and yet I watch Netflix content exclusively on Apple devices. My Kindle app on my iPad is full of books I never bought through Apple either. I would assume that most Spotify customers would do the same, sign up on the website and then use the apps on various platforms.

At most Apple should make it easier for you to jump from the app to a website to pay for Spotify.

 

[AnonMac50]

What I would like is a way to set Spotify as the auto play app when I connect to Bluetooth speakers (or a car), or better yet stop auto play from happening. It usually forgets within minutes of not using Spotify that I was listening to a song there and just starts the music app (and sometimes it takes pressing play a few times before Music gives up control). The most obnoxious (yet very rare) behaviour is when it stops playing midway through a song and just decided to switch to Music. I tried deleting the Music app but then the phone refuses to play any music on some of the speakers and cars

 

[TheMacDaddy1]

They just don’t have Spotify OS to run it all on.

which sounds….. frankly awful.

Or the Spotify device either.

 

[dwaltwhit]

At what point does apple pull out of europe?

 

[G5isAlive]

Apple needs to learn how to donate to 'charitable funds' better..don't they know that's 'competition' ?

 

[norbinhouston]

So lower your price Spotify, that's what an open market dictates! You have competition, you lower your price or make your product better. Who wins? The consumer.

 

[Frantisekj]

It is not bad when they review big tech behavior. Only fool can expect they do all only in best intentions. No home runs.
It will be be long and costly battle where mainly lawyers will benefit

 

[NightFox]

Oh, the old bureaucrats doing their thing.....

Oh, you mean upholding the law?

 

[bollman]

This is easily fixed by Apple: allow Spotify to link to their website for payment.
I’d like apple to explain how that would be a bad thing.

 

[JustMartin]

It's ironic that Spotify are complaining about losing money when they've been gouging musicians for years.

 

[haydn!]

Agree with the EU. Apple forcing everyone to use ApplePay for in-app purchase is anti-competitive. If they are worried about security/data privacy. Create a standard/code of conduct for other payment processors to adhere to before allowing them to operate within the AppStore. ApplePay is easy and convenient, so I suspect most app devs would choose it anyway.

The other AppStore complaints though, like ApplePay for initial app purchases, the stance on side loading and third party stores, etc. I support Apple.