Margrethe Vestager, Executive Vice President and Head of Antitrust Law at the Commission, said: said in the post Apple's actions “impacted millions of EU consumers who were unable to make #freechoices about where, how, and at what price they purchase their music streaming subscriptions.” said.
In 2019, Spotify accused Apple of abusing its power over the App Store and unfairly “taxing” competitors' apps. By charging fees to companies offering rival products, Apple was “essentially acting as both player and referee to the deliberate disadvantage of other app developers,” CEO Daniel Ek said. wrote at the time.
The European Commission indicted the tech giant in 2021, criticizing it for requiring developers to use an in-app payment system and charging a 30% fee for such transactions, but this practice “distorts competition”, the European Commission said. The commission announced on Monday that its investigation had revealed “unfair trading conditions”.
In response, Apple said in a statement that it would appeal the 1.8 billion euro fine.
“Today, the European Commission announced a decision stating that the App Store constitutes a barrier to competition in the digital music market,” the company said. “This decision was taken despite the Commission's failure to uncover any credible evidence of consumer harm and reflects the realities of a prosperous, competitive and rapidly growing market. is ignored.”
Spotify said in a statement Monday that the commission's decision marks “an important moment in the fight for a more open internet for consumers.” However, the company said that while it was “pleased” with the move, it “does not address Apple's bad behavior towards developers beyond music streaming in other markets around the world.”
Apple has won a separate antitrust lawsuit against its U.S. app store, but Epic Games, the maker of the popular video game series Fortnite, has accused the tech giant of selling developers without notifying consumers. It alleged that Apple abused its monopoly by forcing the use of its payment processing services. Alternative proposal. A federal appeals court last year upheld a ruling that Epic Games failed to prove its claim that Apple violated federal antitrust laws.
The Justice Department is currently investigating whether Apple violated U.S. antitrust laws by stifling its competitors, and could face a lawsuit as early as late March, according to reports.
correction
A previous version of this article incorrectly listed Spotify CEO Daniel Ek's name. Fixed.
