“The EU must act quicklybecause every day that passes is a defeat for innovation and for the well-being of European consumers”. It is one of the messages contained in the letter delivered to the top of the European Commission by Spotify, Deezer and six other signatories where they ask “quick and incisive actions” against Appleguilty of hampering competition by charging excessive fees and making spurious rule changes along the way.
Spotify is one of the toughest voices against Apple. The question is always that. Reworked, viewed from a different perspective, and given different names, but the core is invariant: the control of Apple on the behavior of those who reach customers through the App Store, and the commissions between 15 and 30% on payments that Apple can invest on its services – Music in this case – to get a unfair advantage over the competition.
The music streaming platform brought the “Apple case” to European tables for the first time in 2019, two years later in the preliminary conclusions the European Commission has accepted Spotify’s complaints after ascertaining that Apple’s behavior was contrary to European competition laws. But the process has not yet come to a conclusion and in Cupertino, without explicit and definitive requests, they have not deviated by an inch.
Now Spotify and company ask done in a short time. However, help could come from DMA and DSA, the two EU provisions that regulate digital markets and services. It is highly probable, not to say assumed, that Apple is framed as gatekeepera position that will force the company, at the latest in 2024, to change course for which, moreover, we are already preparing in the parts of Cupertino, in order not to be caught unprepared at a moment that will be crucial for the future.
