The European Commission is reportedly preparing to impose a fine on Apple amounting to several hundred million euros. The apple brand would not have respected competition rules on European territory.
According to the Financial Times, the Cupertino company should be fined 500 million euros next month. Indeed, it would not have complied with European legislation concerning access to music streaming services. In 2019, the Swedish Spotify accused the American giant of abusing its dominant position in the application platform market, thus favoring its own service: Apple Music.
After several years of investigation following the opening of this file, the European Commission’s ruling is now on the verge of being handed down.
A fine of 500 million euros for Apple
It is at the beginning of March that the sanction from the European Commission should be announced, as reported by the site Release. The latter is therefore preparing to impose a fine of 500 million euros on Apple for abusing its dominant position in the music streaming market.
The complaint filed with the EU by Spotify four years earlier was indignant against the anti-competitive practices of Apple’s online store, the App Store, which imposes a 30% commission on various music streaming services. A practice deemed unfair, which forces the Swedish group to increase the price of its subscription for its users.
Note that the latter can, in reality, subscribe to the service at a cheaper rate outside of the Apple platform (9.99 euros on the Spotify website compared to 12.99 euros on the App Store).
By imposing its purchasing process on its store, Spotify believes that Apple is distorting competition in the music streaming market (the Apple Music subscription price being artificially lower than that of Spotify on the App Store), thus abusing its dominant position on this market.
Music streaming: an imminent sanction for Apple
Just yesterday, the Financial Times claimed that the European Commission was about to fine Apple 500 million euros for unfair competition. Although the company led by Tim Cook is not its first plum, it would nevertheless be the very first time that it would be sanctioned for anti-competitive practices by Brussels. The sentence is expected to be handed down early next month.
As a reminder, starting March 7, tech giants will have to comply with the new laws on digital markets. Obviously, Apple will not escape this and will also have to comply with the rules of the Digital Markets Act (DMA).
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Apple Music is a music streaming service that gives you access to millions of songs, albums and artists you love. It offers unlimited access to your music library, without any advertising, on all of your devices.
Apple Music is a music streaming service that gives you access to millions of songs, albums and artists you love. It offers unlimited access to your music library, without any advertising, on all of your devices.
Source : Release
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