Namely, that it cannot stop apps letting users know about third-party payment options. This will result in a new, more limited, antitrust charge against Apple. The Financial Times reports that the investigation into Spotify’s complaint has been narrowed to the single issue of whether the app can include an external subscription link.īrussels has narrowed its long-running antitrust probe against Apple, focusing on the way the tech giant restricts apps such as Spotify from telling users about alternative subscription options, according to three people with knowledge of the situation. It now appears that the same compromise may be reached in Europe.
DEEZER VS SPOTIFY FREE
The court in that case gave a compromise ruling: that developers should be free to direct users to third-party payment options within their apps. Apple/Spotify battle may be resolvedĮpic Games filed a similar US lawsuit against Apple back in 2020, after the iPhone maker removed Fortnite from the App Store when the games company added a direct payment option to the app. It was signed by the CEOs and senior execs of digital organizations representing publishing, audio streaming, web software, communications, and marketplaces – including Basecamp, Deezer, and Proton. In January of this year, Spotify ramped up the pressure with an open letter addressed to the European Commission’s executive vice-president Margrethe Vestager. The commission reached a preliminary conclusion that Spotify was right, and that Apple was likely in breach of European competition law, but no ruling has yet been made. This would be impossible given the tiny margins on which streaming music services operate.Īdditionally, Apple’s App Store rules didn’t even allow the Spotify app to tell users about other ways to subscribe to the service. It said that while Apple Music can offer subscriptions within the app without any penalty, Spotify would have to give Apple 30% (or 15% from year two) of its subscription revenue if it did the same. Spotify filed a European antitrust complaint about Apple almost exactly four years ago, claiming that Apple was giving its own streaming music service an unfair advantage over Spotify. Reading between the lines of a brief report today, it appears that the European Commission may be heading toward a compromise ruling, which would mirror that made in the Apple vs. Some four years after the Apple/ Spotify battle began back in 2019, we may have the first indication of how the European Union will resolve the antitrust dispute.
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