The EU concludes that Apple maintains a dominant position over its competitors in the music streaming business.
European Commission finds Apple guilty
In June 2020 the European Commission launched an investigation into Apple’s practices in the music streaming business that has now concluded with the decision to find it guilty of favoring Apple Music over Spotify and other music streaming platforms.
This has been communicated by the Vice President of the European Commission, Margrethe Vestager, through her Twitter account, where she has communicated the preliminary conclusions of the Commission. The investigation, initiated at the request of Spotify, concludes that the 30% commission that Apple charges paid applications in its App Store constitutes a practice contrary to free competition.
In the case of music streaming, Apple Music offers its platform aimed at the same market as, for example, Spotify, but does not “charge itself” such a fee, hence abusing its dominant position and hindering free competition by restricting consumer choice. This explicitly contravenes Article 102 TFEU (Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union).
Even though in November last year Apple announced a reduction of its commission from 30% to 15% for small developers, where the European Commission has also put the spotlight on video game developers.
If finally found guilty, Apple could face a fine amounting to 23 billion euros.
