Apple faces a European Union antitrust complaint as soon as this week, escalating a probe into Spotify Technology SA’s allegations that App Store rules are unfair, Bloomberg News reports, citing “a person familiar with the case who asked not to be named because the process isn’t public.”
Aoife White for Bloomberg News:
The move raises the risk that the EU could order changes to Apple’s App Store or impose fines. Apple will have the chance to argue its case against any EU suspicions before regulators take a final decision. The EU is also probing Apple over e-books and payments.
Spotify complained in 2019 that Apple unfairly squeezes its music streaming service with ever-changing rules and a large sales commission on the app store.
Apple declined to comment on the EU probe, referring to a 2019 blog post where it said Spotify was trying to keep “substantial revenue that they draw from the App Store’s customers without making any contributions to that marketplace.”
MacDailyNews Take: Spotify is a money-losing enterprise that cannot compete and has already been eclipsed by Apple Music in the world’s No.1 market for recorded music, the United States of America.
Seeing the writing on the wall, Spotify has run whining to the EU like little babies crying for mommy.
“This boils down to the fact that Spotify wants to use the platform that Apple built and maintains at great expense for free.” – MacDailyNews, March 13, 2019
Spotify is good at three things: Losing money, whining to authorities, and gypping artists.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Fred Mertz” for the heads up.]
