Years before Epic Games declared itself an anti-monopoly company (although in the moment of truth it only goes against what it cares about), Manzana already had a rather notorious conflict with Spotifypopular audio platform through streaming originally from Sweden, which accused the Cupertino giant of essentially the same thing: being a monopolistic entity in its own ecosystem and operating unfair competition from there.

Despite the loss of media importance of the conflict, the fact is that relations between Spotify and Apple continue to be bad, which is reflected in the fact that the platform for content in audio format has once again accused the Cupertino corporation of an anti-competitive attitude due to the rejection of their audiobook purchase system.

Dive into the details Spotify launched its audiobook business last month by making around 300,000 titles available.. The company of Swedish origin stated this in a post published on its official blog Apple rejected its audiobook purchase system three timeswhich again and according to their version committed an anti-competitive attitude.

According to Spotify, the restrictions that Apple imposes on its own platform prevent users from easily comparing prices, which “harms not only consumers, but this time also authors and publishers who are now controlled by Manzano”.

It’s no secret that Apple rules its ecosystem with an iron fist, to the extent that the apple-bitten company even imposes its conditions on third-party services that intend to operate through its app store. In fact, that’s what The New York Times said Spotify audiobooks would be accepted without much inconvenience if the service lived up to their standards: “We gave them clear instructions on how to fix the problem and approved their app after they made changes to make it compliant.”

Having to jump through the hoops of the App Store and its rules forces Spotify to have to give Apple a 30% commission on every sale made, and because deep down it’s nothing more than the “other side” of a conflict that’s dragged on. time, through the audio platform streaming He recalled that almost four years ago he “filed a complaint against Apple with the European Commission” and that he is still waiting for a decision.

Spotify said that while it is still awaiting a decision from the European Commission, “Apple continues to dictate what innovation looks like online, which is seriously harming the Internet economy, stifling competition and the imagination of app developers.” In the absence of government intervention in Europe, the US, or any other market in the world, Apple has proven time and time again that it will not self-regulate and has no real incentive to change. With the launch of our audiobooks, Apple has once again shown how brash it is willing to play with the rules of the App Store, constantly changing targets to put its competitors at a disadvantage.”

Although Apple has been the target of a lot of criticism in recent years for being an apparent monopoly in its own ecosystem, it wouldn’t be in this situation if consumers and developers hadn’t (for a long time) rewarded and elevated its ecosystem for over a decade. If sales were lower, the Cupertino giant would certainly be forced to set more flexible and favorable conditions for users and developers.