Apple, the new common enemy? After the recent attacks by Elon Musk, Daniel Ek, CEO of Spotify, has added fuel to the fire by exposing, once again, his grievances against the firm at the apple. In a flurry of tweets, Daniel Ek accused the latter of “to [donner] every possible benefit while stifling innovation and hurting consumers”. Daniel Ek brandishes in this respect several anti-trust investigations carried out against the Cupertino company, but also the statements of industry giants such as the CEO of Epic Games, Tim Sweeney, that of Microsoft, Brad Smith, and of course Elon Musk.
“Apple is acting in its own interest, but also doesn’t seem to care about the law or the courts”, insists Daniel Ek. He also returns to the 30% tax imposed on developers on purchases made via the App Store. Charges deemed abusive which would have forced Spotify, according to the CEO, to “artificially inflate“its prices to cover its costs. Asked by Reuters, the apple brand did not comment. However, it had declared in the past that this tax was used to protect consumers.
A monopoly situation also denounced in the past by Tim Sweeney, CEO of Epic Games, in bickering with the brand about his famous game Fortnite : “The fight is not about Epic’s desire for a special deal, but about the fundamental freedoms of all consumers and developers.” For his part, Daniel Ek concluded his 21 tweets with: “How much longer are we going to look away from this threat to the future of the Internet? How many additional consumers will be deprived of choice? There have been a lot of discussions. Talking is useful, but we must act”.