Apple has filed a suit at the EU’s General Court in Luxembourg to overturn a March ruling by the European Commission ordering it to pay a €1.8 billion (A$2.93 billion) fine over allegations it shut out music-streaming rivals, including Spotify , on its platforms.
The EU’s instructions to Apple at the time of the ruling also included an order to stop preventing music-streaming apps from informing users of cheaper deals away from its App Store.
The investigation into Apple’s hold over music streaming apps within its App Store began with a complaint five years ago from Spotify, which claimed it was compelled to increase the price of its monthly subscriptions to cover costs associated with Apple’s apparent monopolistic practices with its App Store.
The European Commission, the EU’s antitrust arm, added that it stands ready to defend its decisions in court, reports Bloomberg.
Separately, Apple is also battling EU regulators in a €13 billion tax bill stemming from claims that Irish state aid was provided to the American company. That case is yet to be settled.
However, the biggest sore point for Apple and other Big Tech companies is the new EU Digital Markets Acts (DMA), which became enforceable in March, and empowers the European Commission to rein in undesirable practices by these tech majors.
The new regulations are believed to directly impact the “gatekeepers” of the industry – firms with a market capitalisation of at least €75 billion and with a platform with 45 million monthly active end users in the EU. These would include the likes of Apple, Meta, Amazon and Alphabet.
