European Commission (EC) announced this Monday a fine of 1.840 million euros to the technology giant Apple for imposing App Store restrictions for competitors of your service music V ‘streaming’, How Spotify, which in practice prevented them from informing users about iPhone And iPad about cheaper non-app music subscription options.

“For ten years, Apple has abused its dominant market position to distribute music streaming services through the App Store. This is illegal and has affected millions of European consumers who were unable to choose freely,” explained the European Commission’s Executive Vice-President in charge of competition. Margrethe Vestager.

Brussels, which considers the fine “proportional to Apple’s global revenue” (it amounts to 0.5% of its annual turnover) and “necessary for deterrence”, ordered the company it leads Tim Cook remove restrictions on its competitors and refrain from using similar practices in the future.

Brussels believed Apple had a dominant market position because the only way for iPhone or iPad users to download online music apps like Spotify, which filed a complaint in 2019, was through its own App Store. Shop.

Apple charges its competitors a 30% commission on the subscription plans they offer users that they can only get through the App Store, while those competitors pass on the markup to users and convert. Alternative options are more expensive than Apple’s. Music, the application itself, which is installed by default on iPhone and iPad.

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Brussels found that App Store rules prevent rival Apple Music from informing iOS users about subscription prices outside the App Store itself or about price differences, including links to an alternative service’s website, or from contacting recent users to inform them about alternatives .

These bans are “neither necessary nor proportionate to protecting Apple’s commercial interests,” said Brussels, who also determined that “they affect the interests of iOS users” by preventing them from making informed decisions about where and how to buy music subscriptions. “streaming”.

“Apple’s behavior, spanning nearly a decade, may have resulted in many iOS users paying much higher prices for streaming music subscriptions due to the fees Apple imposed on developers and passed on to consumers” in the form of higher prices for subscription to the same service,” the European Commission explained in its statement.

(EFE)