Spotify files antitrust complaint to EU against Apple

guest · Mar 13, 2019

Spotify files antitrust complaint to EU against Apple
Spotify files antitrust complaint with EU regulators against Apple in music streaming fight
March 13, 2019
https://abcnews.go.com/Technology/wireStory/spotify-files-antitrust-complaint-eu-apple-61653395

Spotify founder Daniel Ek said Wednesday that the company has filed a formal antitrust complaint with the executive European Commission against Apple — a move that adds to the debate about how to rein in the power of big-tech.

Writing in a blog post , Ek said Apple is acting "as both a player and referee to deliberately disadvantage other app developers" by bringing in new rules to its App Store that intentionally limit choice and constrain innovation.

Spotify's beef with Apple centers on a 30 percent tax it and other digital services have to pay whenever they use Apple's "in-app" payment system to process user purchases such as upgrading subscriptions.
The charge makes Spotify's premium membership more expensive than Apple Music, so the company said it refuses to use the system.
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guest · Mar 14, 2019

Spotify’s EU antitrust complaint could be a serious threat to Apple
Legal expert: Spotify has "pretty good case" against Apple
March 14, 2019
https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy...rules-could-violate-european-competition-law/

For years, Apple has pressured Spotify to use Apple's In-App Purchase service to collect subscription fees. Spotify has resisted, largely because Apple takes a whopping 30-percent commission.

"Spotify probably has a pretty good case in Europe," argues Chris Sagers, a legal scholar and antitrust expert at the Cleveland-Marshal College of Law. Apple's efforts to prevent Spotify from bypassing Apple's in-app purchasing rules "looks like garden variety anticompetitive exclusion to me," Sagers said. "I think it will to the European Commission as well."

"Apple taking exclusionary steps to keep developers paying high fees to get their software onto people's phones looks anticompetitive," he told Ars. "The European Commission has seemed receptive to that kind of theory. And it looks worse when the firm also just happens to be selling competing products."
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guest · Mar 15, 2019

Apple says Spotify wants 'the benefits of a free app without being free'
March 15, 2019
https://www.engadget.com/2019/03/15/apple-response-to-spotify-ec-claim/

Apple is firing back in response to Spotify's European Commission (EC) complaint. In a newsroom release, the company said that Spotify "seeks to keep all the benefits of the App Store ecosystem ... without making any contributions to that marketplace."

"Spotify has every right to determine their own business model, but we feel an obligation to respond when Spotify wraps its financial motivations in misleading rhetoric about who we are," the company wrote.
In response, Apple addressed each complaint point by point, while criticizing Spotify's treatment of musicians and artists.
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guest · Mar 16, 2019

Spotify responds to Apple, calling it a ‘monopolist’
The latest in the fight between the two companies
March 16, 2019
https://www.theverge.com/2019/3/16/...n-commission-antitrust-statement-war-of-words

Specifically, Spotify is upset at the 30 percent that Apple charges developers for subscriptions, and it says that it’s designed to give Apple Music an unfair advantage in the marketplace.
It also launched a website called Time to Play Fair, where it outlined its complaints against Apple.

In its latest statement, as seen by Variety, Spotify said that “every monopolist will suggest they have done nothing wrong and will argue that they have the best interests of competitors and consumers at heart,” and went on to reiterate that Apple’s policies hurt consumers.
“This is evident in Apple’s belief that Spotify’s users on iOS are Apple customers and not Spotify customers, which goes to the very heart of the issue with Apple.”
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guest · May 5, 2019

EU set to investigate Apple over Spotify's competition claims
May 5, 2019
https://www.engadget.com/2019/05/05/eu-set-to-investigate-apple-over-spotify-claims/

The European Union might just believe that Spotify's complaint against Apple has some merit. Financial Times sources have claimed that EU competition commissioners have decided to launch an antitrust investigation [...]
The investigation would start in the "next few weeks," according to the outlet.

There's no certainty that an investigation will lead to what Spotify wants. A victory for the company would have a significant effect on Apple, though. It might have to reduce or eliminate its cut of subscriptions, or ensure that its devices can work as closely with third-party media services as they do with Apple's own.
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guest · Jun 24, 2019

Apple says it collects fee on less than 1% of Spotify users
June 24, 2019
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-...on-less-than-1-of-spotify-users-idUSKCN1TP2D0

Music streaming service Spotify Technology SA pays Apple Inc a 15% fee on about 680,000 of its 100 million premium customers, Apple disclosed in a response to Spotify’s complaint with European antitrust regulators.

Apple competes directly with Spotify with its Apple Music service. In March, Spotify filed a complaint with European Union regulators saying that Apple’s control of the App Store, including fees it charges for taking payments through the store, had made it unfairly difficult for rivals to compete for music subscribers.

Apple charges a 30% fee for in-app purchases made through the App Store, a fee that drops to 15% on subscription purchases after one year.
But in Apple’s response to Spotify’s complaint, Apple said that Spotify does not currently pay a 30% fee for any of its premium users and that only a small fraction are affected by its fees.
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guest · Oct 4, 2019

Exclusive: Antitrust probers in Congress ask Spotify to detail alleged Apple abuses - sources
October 4, 2019
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-...il-alleged-apple-abuses-sources-idUSKBN1WJ1Y3

U.S. lawmakers have requested information from Apple (AAPL.O) critic Spotify as part of an antitrust probe, according to two sources briefed on the investigation into allegations the iPhone maker engages in anti-competitive behavior to support its own apps.

The U.S. House of Representatives Judiciary Committee reached out to the music streaming service with broad requests for information, according to one source, who added the request to the company was narrowed in follow up telephone calls.
Spotify Technology SA (SPOT.N) filed an antitrust complaint against Apple in the European Union in March, but the contact with the committee marks its first known participation in congressional inquiries into the iPhone maker, whose Apple Music streaming service is Spotify’s biggest rival.

Spotify has been pressing for antitrust action against Apple for several years.
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guest · May 5, 2020

Spotify's CEO Expects Apple to Further 'Open Up' After EU Antitrust Complaint
May 5, 2020
https://www.macrumors.com/2020/05/05/spotify-apple-open-up-antitrust-complaint/

Spotify CEO Daniel Ek today told Bloomberg that he expects Apple to further "open up" in long term following the antitrust complaint Spotify filed with the European Union last year.
In the complaint, Spotify said that Apple enforces App Store rules that "purposely limit choice and stifle innovation at the expense of the user experience," and that Apple acts as "both a player and referee to deliberately disadvantage other app developers."

Apple has since made a few changes, launching a feature that allows Siri to work with non-Apple Music services, and Spotify has also introduced new Apple Watch and Apple TV apps. Ek said these moves have been encouraging.

"We're very encouraged about being able to now finally use ‌Siri‌ as a way of building in voice support and also being available to build products for the ‌Apple TV‌ and ‌Apple Watch‌, something that we haven't been able to do until very recently," Ek said in the interview.
It's unclear if Spotify was actually prevented from launching an ‌Apple TV‌ app as the platform has had other music services for multiple years as ‌App Store‌ apps.
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Apple, said Ek is "moving in the right direction," but there are "many, many steps" still to go before Spotify will consider Apple an "open and fair platform."
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guest · Jul 30, 2020

Telegram is the latest company to file an EU antitrust complaint against Apple
July 30, 2020
https://www.engadget.com/telegram-eu-antitrust-complaint-102004026.html

Today, secure messaging app Telegram is joining in, filing a formal antitrust complaint to the European Union’s competition authority.

As the Financial Times points out, it’s the third big name, after Spotify and Rakuten, which has lobbied the EU to do something about the App Store’s lock-in and 30 percent commission. And here, as then, the general sentiment is that the commission is too high, and that not allowing users to download apps from other sources is harming competition.
A few days ago, Telegram co-founder and CEO Pavel Durov published an open letter concerning Apple’s “30 percent tax on apps.”
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It’s not clear if these arguments, which broadly amount to saying that Apple has too much money, and is too popular, will carry weight with the EU.
But even if Telegram’s argument is weak, it’s clear that every developer with an axe to grind against Apple is going to use this as an opportunity.
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