EU and Spotify against Apple: danger of closing the App store
EU antitrust czar Margrethe Vestager (who has a reputation for attacking American tech giants for antitrust reasons) has just launched a crusade against Apple.
Via a charge sheet issued Friday, Vestager and the EU have ruled that Apple is guilty of antitrust violations for allegedly abusing its control of its app store when it comes to music streaming apps like Spotify, a competing European company. against Apple's Apple Music “with its popular music streaming and podcast app, and which filed a complaint against the American company.
While it seems reasonable at first glance, it's worth noting the specific practice Vestager finds offensive: this is Apple's habit of charging up to 30% commissions on some of its most popular apps. This is pretty much the same issue that Epic and Apple will fight over.
"By setting strict rules on the App Store that disadvantage competing music streaming services, Apple is depriving users of cheaper music streaming choices and distorts competition," said Margrethe Vestager, head of competition enforcement at the European Commission.
Fortunately for Apple, the company will have a chance to support its cause before the European Commission makes a final decision. However, if found guilty, Apple may have to pay a fine of up to 10% of its annual revenue and be forced to adjust its business practices, i.e. discontinue the current APP store, although Apple can also appeal any decision in court.
Spotify isn't the only company to complain to European regulators: Epic Games also filed an antitrust complaint with the commission against Apple in February for similar reasons.
"We will not stand by and allow Apple to use its dominance on the platform to control what should be a uniform digital playing field," said Epic founder and CEO Tim Sweeney at the time.
A similar legal dispute began in the US last summer when Epic sued Apple after Apple removed Fortnite from the App Store over Epic's decision to create an in-app workaround that would allow customers to circumvent Apple's fees.
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The EU article and Spotify against Apple: danger of closing the App store comes from ScenariEconomici.it .
This is a machine translation of a post published on Scenari Economici at the URL https://scenarieconomici.it/ue-e-spotify-contro-apple-pericolo-di-chiusura-dellapp-store/ on Fri, 30 Apr 2021 15:04:01 +0000.