The European Union announced it would fine the company for interfering with competing music streaming services.
The European Union fined the company Apple for 1.84 billion euros for violating antitrust laws.
CNN writes about this.
The European Union has announced it will fine the company for preventing rival music streaming services like Spotify from telling iPhone users they could find cheaper subscription options outside of Apple's app store. .
Margrethe Vestager, the EU's competition and digital commissioner, said Apple was “abusing its dominant position” as a distributor of music streaming apps, adding that European consumers do not have “free choice about where, how and at what prices buy subscriptions to stream music.”
“It is illegal and it has affected millions of European consumers,” Vestager said at a press conference.
Apple responded that the decision by the European Commission, the EU's executive body, was made despite the fact that “it failed to identify any credible evidence of harm to consumers and ignores the thriving realities of the market, is competitive and fast is growing.”
The company said in a statement that app developers “compete on a level playing field” in Apple's app store.
The European Commission opened a formal antitrust investigation into Apple in 2020 after Spotify filed a complaint against Apple the previous year, accusing it of unfairly discriminating against its competitors.
The complaint stated that Apple required the Swedish music streamer and other content providers to pay a 30% fee for purchases made through Apple's internal payment system, while its own Apple Music service did not have to pay this collection. Spotify also said Apple has blocked it from sharing information about subscription agreements with iPhone customers.
In January, Apple announced changes to the app experience in the EU, including plans to allow third-party app stores on iPhone and iPad for the first time in the company's history and a significant reduction in app store fees.
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