European Commission fines Apple €1.8bn after complaint from Spotify

The European Commission has ruled to fine Apple 1.84 billion euros (about $2 billion) for violating antitrust rules in connection with its App Store policy. The Commission also demanded that Apple not prohibit music services from advertising cheaper subscriptions outside the App Store. The European Commission's decision came after a Spotify complaint filed in 2020.

Here's What We Know

According to Margrethe Vestager, the European Commission's vice president for competition, Apple abused its dominant position in the market for distributing music apps through the App Store for ten years. She claimed that Apple prohibited music app developers from fully informing iOS users about alternative and cheaper music services available outside of Apple's ecosystem. This is illegal under EU antitrust rules.

Spotify welcomed the European Commission's decision, calling it a "powerful message" and saying that Apple's rules deprived Spotify and other music services of the ability to communicate directly with users in their apps about various benefits, subscription pricing, promotions, discounts and other privileges. Spotify also noted that Apple Music, a competitor to these apps, is not subject to such restrictions.

Apple, on the other hand, criticised the European Commission's decision, saying the commission failed to "find any credible evidence" of consumer harm or anti-competitive behaviour. The company also said Spotify wanted to "rewrite the App Store rules" to gain competitive advantage without paying anything to Apple, despite the fact that the App Store was important to Spotify's current market dominance. Apple has said it will appeal the decision.

In addition, the European Commission is also investigating Apple's policy of restricting the NFC (contactless communication) feature on the iPhone for its own wallet and payment services. As a result of the investigation, Apple has proposed to allow third-party mobile wallet and payment service providers to use the NFC feature on the iPhone for payments.

Source: The Verge, European Commission