They’ve been battling over anti-trust allegations for years, but even with a big penalty looming, the company could emerge with its head held high
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Another week, another clash between Apple and European regulators. According to the Financial Times, the company is facing a massive fine for alleged anti-competitive conduct in its music streaming business. From its story:
The fine, which is in the region of €500mn and is expected to be announced early next month, is the culmination of a European Commission antitrust probe into whether Apple has used its own platform to favour its services over those of competitors.
The probe is investigating whether Apple blocked apps from informing iPhone users of cheaper alternatives to access music subscriptions outside the App Store.
Apple’s App Store is an important distribution platform for Spotify. But Apple takes a 30% commission on all sales made through the App Store – including music streaming subscriptions – which Spotify and many other third-party app developers have long complained is an unfair “tax”.
“Apple requires that Spotify and other digital services pay a 30% tax on purchases made through Apple’s payment system, including upgrading from our free to our premium service,” said Daniel Ek, Spotify co-founder and chief executive, in a blog post.
