The antitrust investigation facing Apple in the EU region is still in a state of anxiety. When the accuser attempted to further challenge its rules and bottom line, the company showed a tough attitude.
Recently, according to the Financial Times, the European Union plans to impose a fine of approximately 500 million euros on Apple on suspicion of violating EU competition regulations. Sources say that the European Union is expected to announce this ruling early next month.
This penalty is based on allegations made by European streaming giant Spotify in 2019. The company claims that the operation of the Apple App Store (mainly related to a 30% commission rate) has forced the company to increase the price of subscription services. EU regulators immediately launched an investigation.
Apple made significant concessions in March 2022 regarding this matter. The company allows the Reader app to provide users with external links for paid registration. This means that multiple content platforms such as Spotify and Netflix can bypass the commission mechanism of Apple's own payment system while complying with Apple's rules.
But Spotify and other companies are not satisfied with this. According to the previous report, Spotify subsequently stated that the relevant restrictions still exist, that is, Apple prevents other competitors from notifying iPhone users that there are cheaper payment methods outside of Apple's subscription channels. Sources say this is the main reason why Apple was fined.
Apple has made a rare public statement regarding Spotify's allegations and potential punishment decisions from EU regulators.
An Apple spokesperson told Interface News and other media that Spotify has been the main driving force for the European Commission to launch an investigation into Apple over the past decade. Apple has learned that Spotify has had up to 65 public and non-public contacts with the European Commission.
Spotify accuses Apple of harming consumer interests and hindering market competition, but the European Commission currently has no direct evidence to draw this conclusion.
In the past few years, the user base of the European streaming music market has increased from 25 million in 2015 to 160 million in 2023, with an average annual growth rate of 27%. Spotify dominates the market. A set of data cited by Apple shows that Spotify has a market share of 56% in the European market, which is more than twice the market share of second ranked Amazon Music.
Therefore, the focus of the EU's ruling this time is Apple's anti circumvention rules, which do not provide clearer off-site payment traffic within the app.
Apple stated that this is a common market behavior, intended to prevent developers from using a platform to attract paying users, but to avoid the platform's payment system when users actually need to pay.
The company emphasizes that Spotify and other music streaming services can still be marketed to consumers through channels such as email, social media, text messages, and online advertising, and the payment method through "readers" is also allowed under Apple's rules.
Apple believes that the investigation by the European Commission has no factual or legal basis.
Over the past decade, Apple has invested significant resources in maintaining the App Store ecosystem, including over 250000 API interfaces and development tools.
A spokesperson for Apple stated that Spotify has been a beneficiary of this ecosystem since 2015, using thousands of APIs and beta testing tools such as TestFlight from the 60 frameworks Apple has prepared for developers. As of now, Spotify has been downloaded, re downloaded, and updated 119 billion times on Apple devices. But this company has not paid any fees to Apple except for an annual developer project fee of $99.
In Apple's view, Spotify's goal is very clear. It wants to distribute applications globally and monetize its products through the influence of the App Store, but is unwilling to pay any fees or make any contributions to this channel.
Regarding the next steps of this investigation, the aforementioned Apple spokesperson told Interface News that the company's demand is for the European Commission to recognize the facts, end the investigation, and not take any punitive measures against Apple.
Previously, Apple had already made "concession" policy adjustments in the EU region.
To comply with the new Digital Markets Act (DMA) introduced by the European Union, Apple made a series of rule changes to iOS, Safari browser, and App Store on January 25th, including allowing users to download software from application markets outside of the App Store for the first time, and supporting users to use alternative payment systems outside of Apple Pay.
This company is attempting to break the previous "closed" image, provided that these adjustment actions are necessary within the scope of laws and policies. But in the accusation surrounding Spotify, Apple has taken a rare public form of resistance and refutation.
Behind this, in addition to factual and legal support, the most important consideration is that once EU sanctions are imposed, Apple may face endless similar accusations and its business model will be further challenged.
Since the release of Vision Pro, Apple's application ecosystem has also been infused with greater imagination, and consolidating its own ecological moat has naturally become a necessary action.