The company’s CEO said Spotify has suffered “a big business impact” due to alleged restrictions by Apple.
Background: Apple and Spotify have for a long time been rivals in the music streaming market. When Apple launched Apple Music in 2015, it started competing aggressively with Spotify, taking advantage of the large device base on which Apple’s own service was pre-installed.
The problem: Spotify’s CEO, Daniel Ek, noted that Apple’s platform is now ‘a gateway to the internet’ and gives Apple ‘an unfair advantage at every turn’. Apple requires that Spotify pays a 30% tax on purchases made through Apple’s payment system. This would require Spotify to increase the price of premium memberships well above the price of Apple Music. Spotify also laments being locked out of services such as Siri, HomePod, or Apple Watch, which limits the experience of its customers. As a result, Ekman decided to move a formal complaint to the European Commission.
What happens now: The EU Commissioner for Competition, Margrethe Vestager, quickly responded to Spotify’s complaint, and said her team would start examining it. Should the EC finds sufficient grounds to act, it would start an investigation into Apple’s conduct.
