EU fines Apple €1.8bn over App Store restrictions on music streaming
www.theguardian.com
Penalty for breaching competition law is four times higher than forecast as Brussels looks to send message to tech firms

  • Apple has been fined €1.8bn ($2bn) by the EU after an investigation found it had limited competition from music streaming services such as Spotify.

  • The European competition commissioner, Margrethe Vestager, said a smaller fine would have been nothing more than the equivalent of a parking fine and the €1.8bn was designed to act as a deterrent against a repetition of such practices by Apple or others.

  • “Apple’s rules ended up harming consumers. Critical information was withheld so that consumers could not effectively use or make informed choices. Some consumers may have paid more because they weren’t aware that they can pay less if they subscribed outside of the app,” Vestager said.

  • Vestager said consumers may have paid two or three euros a month more for music streaming because of the lack of open competition. However, she conceded that the fine would not be distributed to customers who had been allegedly exploited but to individual member states.

  • She said the fine represented 0.5% of Apple’s global turnover.

  • Ghostalmedia@lemmy.worldEnglish
    57·
    9 months ago

    Apple: If the App Store helps your app facilitate a sale, we should get a cut.

    Developers: Makes sense. So, if I don’t want to pay your finder’s fee, I have to let people download my app from my site?

    Apple: Doing that isn’t secure. If you want people to download your app, you have to use our App Store, or an App Store that we’ve blessed.

    Developers: Ok, so I avoid paying you if I use a different App Store?

    Apple: 3rd party app stores must pay us a commission.

  • The Giant Korean@lemmy.worldEnglish
    151·
    9 months ago

    The European competition commissioner, Margrethe Vestager, said a smaller fine would have been nothing more than the equivalent of a parking fine and the €1.8bn was designed to act as a deterrent against a repetition of such practices by Apple or others.

    Still a drop in the bucket for them (that sounds crazy just saying that) but def a step in the right direction.

    • abhibeckert@lemmy.worldEnglish
      9·
      9 months ago

      Still a drop in the bucket for them

      It’s really not - this is something like two years of revenue for Apple Music in Europe.

      Spotify is free to sue Apple in every other jurisdiction around the world. Imagine if Spotify wins the same amount of money in a couple hundred more countries? Anti-competition law is largely the same everywhere in the world and Apple has the same business practices everywhere, so Apple would lose the same lawsuit elsewhere. It could easily end up with hundreds of billions in damages and why wouldn’t Spotify sue Apple in every country?

      I bet Spotify and Apple are working as we speak to settle this dispute out of court with a settlement that applies globally — this one is only for the EU.

  • cheese_greater@lemmy.worldEnglish
    2·
    9 months ago

    While we’re on the subject, other Music apps (like iTunes or the old iPod app replacements) need to be able to become default music handling apps and totally default away from their dogshit AppleMusic app that takes every opportunity to let you know they prioritize subscribers and you’re up against the current.