Apple Said to Face EU Antitrust Charge on Spotify Complaint

Spotify in its 2019 complaint said Apple unfairly restricts rivals to its own Apple Music service.

By Reuters | Updated: 5 March 2021 10:03 IST

The case is one of four opened by the EU competition enforcer into Apple in June last year

Highlights

The charge could force changes to Apple's lucrative business model
Spotify in its 2019 complaint to the Commission said Apple unfairly restr
Spotify protested against the 30 percent fee levied on app developers

iPhone maker Apple could face an EU antitrust charge sheet in the coming weeks following a 2019 complaint by music streaming service Spotify, two people familiar with the matter said.

The charge could force changes to Apple's lucrative business model, they said.

The European Commission could send the statement of objections setting out suspected violations of the bloc's antitrust rules to Apple before the summer, one of the people said.

Fortnite Developer Epic Games Takes Apple Fight to EU Antitrust Regulators

The case is one of four opened by the EU competition enforcer into Apple in June last year. The EU charge sheet usually indicates whether a fine is merited and what companies have to do to halt anti-competitive practices.

The Commission declined to comment.

Apple was not immediately available to comment. It has said its App Store helped Spotify to benefit from hundreds of millions of app downloads to become Europe's largest music streaming service.

Apple Faces EU Warning Over Equal Treatment of All Apps Amid Privacy Dispute

Spotify in its 2019 complaint to the Commission said Apple unfairly restricts rivals to its own music steaming service Apple Music and also protested against the 30 percent fee levied on app developers to use Apple's in-app purchase system (IAP).

Is Samsung Galaxy F62 the best phone under Rs. 25,000? We discussed this on Orbital, our weekly technology podcast, which you can subscribe to via Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, or RSS, download the episode, or just hit the play button below.

Affiliate links may be automatically generated - see our ethics statement for details.

Comments

For the latest tech news and reviews, follow Gadgets 360 on X, Facebook, WhatsApp, Threads and Google News. For the latest videos on gadgets and tech, subscribe to our YouTube channel. If you want to know everything about top influencers, follow our in-house Who'sThat360 on Instagram and YouTube.