The European Comission has announced a fine of 1,840 million euros to Manzana for abuse of position in the distribution of streaming music. According to the opinion, platforms such as Spotify were prevented from informing device users iPhoneof alternative subscription forms.
“For decades, Apple abused its dominant position in the streaming music market through its App Store,” he warned. Margrethe Vestager, vice president of the European Comission responsible for Competition, at a press conference to announce the sanction against the American multinational and added: “This is illegal under EU antitrust rules.”
Direct access to install apps on the “apple” devices is only possible through the online store, App Store, which is implemented exclusively in the brand’s products. He is also accused of having prohibited informing users of iOS, within their apps, about price differences between in-app subscriptions and those available elsewhere.
The case dates back to 2022, when the organizations responsible for the European Union They accused the company of abusing a dominant position in the streaming music distribution market. Although weeks ago, media such as the Financial Times and Bloomberg estimated that the penalty for the company founded by Steve Jobs would be around $500 million, the sum of the fine was much higher.
The European Commission’s decision is the result of a complaint from the Swedish streaming service Spotify, which was not satisfied with the restriction and the 30% fee that Apple charges in its store. Vestager assured that the American firm restricted “developers from informing consumers about alternative and cheaper music services available outside of the Apple ecosystem.”
The American multinational immediately expressed its disagreement. “The decision was made despite the Commission’s failure to uncover any credible evidence of consumer harm and ignores the realities of a market that is prosperous, competitive and rapidly growing,” the company said in a statement, adding: “The main defender of this decision, and the biggest beneficiary, is Spotify, a company based in Stockholm, Sweden.”
“Spotify has the largest music streaming app in the world and has met with the European Commission more than 65 times during this investigation,” Apple said. In those meetings, Spotify had argued that App Store restrictions benefited the music streaming service. AppleMusic.
Days before the EC ruling, Spotify and 33 other companies operating in a wide range of European digital sectors wrote to the European Commission again attacking Apple’s “lack of compliance” with the Digital Markets Act (DMA). “Apple’s new terms not only ignore both the spirit and the letter of the law, but, if left unchanged, make a mockery of the DMA and the considerable efforts of the European Commission and EU institutions to make it digital markets are competitive,” the technology companies concluded in the statement.
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