Apple’s abuses in the music services market could lead to a fine of 500 million euros, the Financial Times (FT) reported on February 18.
Citing its own sources, the publication reports that the European Commission’s decision to impose a €500 million fine on Apple for violating EU antitrust laws will be announced in early March.
The basis for punishing the corporation was a complaint from the Swedish music service Spotify, filed in 2019. Spotify complained about Apple’s requirement that music services competing with Apple Music pay a 30% commission on payments made to through the Apple payment system. At the same time, there was no such requirement for Uber and Deliveroo services, which are not direct competitors of Apple services.
The publication clarifies that in early 2022, Apple allowed music services to charge subscription fees outside of paid services for iOS, but in June Spotify reported that this feature was impossible to implement in practice. As a result, the European Commission decided that Apple’s conditions for working with music services lead to increased subscription costs for users.
The European Commission did not rule on whether to impose a fine on Apple.
Source: Rossa Primavera
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