In the next few hours, Apple’s legal representatives will meet in a courtroom in Brussels, behind closed doors, to try to reject the accusation made by the Antitrust regarding theanti-competitive practices on the App Store. The lawsuit, filed after allegations made by Spotify in recent years, could lead to a fine of nearly $40 billion
Spotify, in 2019, had sued Apple to the European Commission accusing it of “acting both as a player and as an arbiter to deliberately disadvantage other developers”. Furthermore, according to the indictment, Apple would purposely limit the choice on the App Store “stifling innovation to the detriment of the user experience”.
Following this complaint, the European Union launched a formal investigation against Apple aimed at ascertaining the validity of the allegations advanced, in particular that on the 30% commission on App Store purchasesincluding in-app subscriptions, which would force Spotify to charge subscribers more to get the 9.99 euros that are usually charged for the Premium plan.
In 2021, the EU released a preliminary report stating that Apple was indeed violating laws on promotion restrictions or anti-government measures, not those on payments through the App Store. Spotify, of course, was not satisfied with that ruling.
As part of the preliminary report, however, the EU had also sent Apple a statement of objections, updated last February, a formal document that is usually sent to the parties involved to inform them of the objections raised against them.
In the communication, the executive had declared that it had no intention of taking a position on the point in which the Cupertino company was accused of forcing developers to use its own in-app payment system for which it collects a commission (the “IAP obligation”), but confirmed to focus mainly on the rules imposed on developers.
Apple was then asked to organize a defense to prove that the allegations are unfounded. As reported by the Reuters, Apple should argue that Spotify’s claim of Apple Music’s dominance has no merit. Spotify is currently the leading music streaming platform in Europe, while Apple Music ranks third or fourth in most EU countries.
Furthermore, Apple should argue in its defense that it has already revised its rules to ensure that apps defined as “readers”, i.e. those that allow access to reading content (such as music, videos, magazines, newspapers, books and the like), including Spotify, Netflix and many others, can connect to their websites for setup, account management and subscription payments without having to pay the 30% App Store fee.
This antitrust investigation is going ahead at a time when sweeping new rules are also coming from the EU that will limit the way US tech companies operate in Europe. These measures, developed to complement traditional antitrust powers, aim to prevent these companies from abusing their power.
