Apple fined $2 billion for using app store to thwart competition
Associated Press. According to the report, Apple banned app developers from "fully informing iOS users about alternative and cheaper music subscription services outside of the app," said the European Commission. Under the EU antitrust rules, that is illegal.
The report further states that Apple worked in this fashion for for almost a decade, meaning many users paid 'significantly higher prices for music streaming subscriptions,' the commission said. The latest fine of $1.8 billion on Apple Inc by EU arrived after a long-running investigation triggered by a complaint from Swedish streaming service Spotify five years ago. Recently, to crack down on big tech companies, the EU has led global efforts that includes a series of multibillion-dollar fines for Google and charging Meta with distorting the online classified ad market.
Apart from this, the EU also opened a separate antitrust investigation into Apple's mobile payments service. Initially, the commission's probe centered on two concerns. One was the iPhone maker's practice of forcing app developers that are selling digital content to use its in-house payment system, which charges a 30 percent commission on all subscriptions.
However, the EU later dropped that to focus on how Apple prevents app makers from telling their users about cheaper ways to pay for subscriptions that don’t involve going through an app. In that probe, EU found Apple banned streaming services from telling users about how much subscription offers cost outside of their apps, that also included links in their apps to pay for alternative subscriptions or even emailing users to tell them about different pricing options. With agency inputs More to come... Milestone Alert!
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