EU slaps Apple with US$2 billion fine over music streaming competition

The European Union has fined Apple for breaking antitrust rules on Monday. The fine is the first of its kind for Apple in the EU. A big technology company has to pay almost 2 billion dollars for not being fair to other music streaming services.

Apple stopped app developers from telling iPhone and iPad users about cheaper music subscriptions that they can get outside of the app. This was said by the European Commission, who are in charge of making sure there is fair competition between companies in the European Union.

That is against the law according to EU rules about competition. Apple behaved this way for almost ten years, which meant many people paid much more money for music streaming subscriptions, according to the commission.

Five years ago, Swedish streaming service Spotify complained about something, and now the company has been ordered to pay a 1. 8 billion euro fine after a long investigation.

The EU is working to make Big Tech companies follow the rules. They fined Google a lot of money and are also accusing Meta of messing with online ads. The commission is also looking into whether Apple’s mobile payments service is breaking antitrust laws.

Apple responded strongly to the commission and Spotify, saying it will challenge the fine.

The company said that the decision was made even though the Commission didn’t find any real evidence that consumers were being hurt. The decision also doesn’t consider the fact that the market is doing well, has lots of competition, and is growing quickly.

Spotify is expected to gain from the decision. They have a large share of the music streaming market in Europe and have been in talks with the commission many times over the years. They do not pay Apple for using its App Store.

“Surprisingly, the decision made today only makes a successful European company even stronger in the digital music market,” Apple said.

The committee’s investigation first focused on two things. Apple makes app developers use its own payment system, which charges a 30% fee on all subscription sales.

However, the EU changed their focus and are now looking at how Apple stops app creators from informing their users about cheaper ways to pay for subscriptions without using an app.

The investigation discovered that Apple stopped streaming services from telling users about the cost of subscription offers outside of their apps. This also included not allowing links in their apps for users to pay for other subscriptions or sending emails to inform users about different pricing options.

The fine comes at the same time as new EU rules aimed at stopping big tech companies from controlling online markets are about to start.

The Digital Markets Act starts on Thursday and gives rules to big companies like Apple, Meta, Google, and ByteDance. They could get big fines if they don’t follow the rules.

The DMA’s rules are meant to stop big tech companies from doing the same things that Apple is being investigated for. Apple has said it will follow the rules in Europe by letting iPhone users use different app stores and allowing developers to use other payment methods.

The commission is also looking into whether Apple’s mobile payments service is unfair to other companies. Apple has said it will let other companies use its tap-and-go mobile payment system to try to solve the problem.