The European Union (EU) believes that the American giant Apple has “Distorted competition” in the online music market, in “Abusing its dominant position” to oust his rivals, according to a press release from the European Commission published on Friday April 30. Brussels had opened an investigation after online music broadcaster Spotify’s complaint against Apple two years ago
Concretely, the European Commissioner, Margrethe Vestager, criticizes the American group for not allowing developers to inform users that they have other means of purchase, sometimes less expensive, apart from applications. And to impose a commission of 30% on paid subscriptions (then 15% from the second year), while its own music service, Apple Music, is exempt.
Apple reacted by statement, believing that “The Commission’s argument in favor of Spotify is the opposite of fair competition” :
” The heart of this matter is Spotify’s request to be able to advertise non-app offers from their own iOS app, a practice that is not allowed in any of the “blinds” of the world. Once again, they want all the benefits of the App Store, but don’t feel like they have to pay anything for it. “
In this case, two visions clash. To criticize the behavior of Spotify, Apple uses this metaphor: imagine that Apple asks Fnac stores to place signs next to its computers and iPhones encouraging customers to buy these products on Apple.com instead.
But if we follow Spotify’s reasoning, we can put forward another comparison: imagine that Fnac puts on its shelves, alongside Apple products, its own tablets and phones, cheaper because it does not pay any commission for it. be distributed in these stores. Asked on this point, Apple replied that this practice would not be different from that of private labels, whose products are present in supermarkets. The manufacturer believes that calculating a fictitious commission to make it pay to its Apple Music subsidiary would only be an accounting artifice.
Numerous complaints against the American company
Spotify’s cause is, however, supported by other companies who also complain about the rules of the App Store, like Netflix or Deezer, a member of the Coalition for App Fairness collective.
Game publisher Epic Games was banned from the App Store after trying to bypass the 30% commission
Several convergent procedures are also targeting Apple. Monday, May 3 thus opens in the United States the lawsuit born of the complaint filed against Apple by Epic Games. The publisher of the famous game Fortnite judge “Tyrannical” the manufacturer’s policy and attempted to circumvent the 30% commission, which resulted in it being banned from the App Store. For its part, Apple believes that Epic Games is leading a “Media and legal campaign” to try to relaunch its game and impose its own application store, the Epic Games Store. Apple also ensures that its commissions are similar to those charged elsewhere, for example the Google Play Store.
In addition, the British competition authority opened an investigation in early March to determine whether the App Store requires developers “Unfair and anti-competitive conditions”. In France, companies, particularly in the field of advertising, have filed a complaint with the National Commission for Informatics and Freedoms (CNIL) and the Competition Authority. The complainants believe that Apple is abusing its dominant position on the App Store by reducing advertising tracking in its new iOS 14 environment. A first urgent decision has rather proved Apple right, but the debate is not over.
At the same time, Apple and the App Store are among the “Gatekeepers” (gatekeepers) of a market explicitly targeted in the European draft regulation of the Digital Markets Act platforms. In particular, it is planned to ban digital giants from “Promote” their own services or prevent companies from “Promote their offers outside the platform”. And in the United States, part of the Democrats hope that the presidency of Joe Biden will allow the laws to be changed to adopt similar rules.