EU Fines Apple $2 Billion for Anti-Competitive Behavior Toward Spotify

The European Commission today fined Apple €1.8 billion ($1.95 billion) for anti-competitive conduct against rival music streaming services. In a response published on its website, Apple fiercely attacked Spotify’s behavior throughout the investigation leading to the fine.

The Commission says that Apple abused its dominant position in the market by forbidding music streaming apps to tell users about cheaper subscription prices outside the app.

The European Commission has fined Apple over €1.8 billion for abusing its dominant position on the market for the distribution of music streaming apps to iPhone and iPad users (‘iOS users’) through its App Store. In particular, the Commission found that Apple applied restrictions on app developers preventing them from informing iOS users about alternative and cheaper music subscription services available outside of the app (‘anti-steering provisions’). This is illegal under EU antitrust rules.

In an extensive public response, Apple noted that while Spotify has a dominant, 56 percent share of Europe’s music streaming market and a “large part of their success is due to the App Store,” the company does not pay anything to Apple because it refuses to sell subscriptions in its app. Apple listed a large number of services that it provides to Spotify for free, such as distribution, APIs, frameworks, TestFlight, App Review, and in-person engineering assistance. “But free isn’t enough for Spotify,” Apple added, “They also want to rewrite the rules of the ‌App Store‌ — in a way that advantages them even more.”

More to follow…

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