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Apple Facing $800M Fine For Dodgy Music Streaming Practises

They are known for stealing patents, and their latest product is proving a flop, now The EU is set to hit Apple with an $800 million dollar fine.

The EU claims that Apple whose management believe that they have a sense of entitlement broke EU laws relating to access to its music streaming services, according to five people with direct knowledge of the long-running investigation.

The record fine follows a European Commission antitrust probe into whether Apple has used its own platform to favour its services over those of competitors.

Currently Apple is having to refund Customers who forked out over $5,000 for the Apple Vision Pro with customers claiming that they cause eye strain, headaches and motion sickness.

More than 200,000 pairs of the goggles were sold during pre-order before being released to the public on Feb. 2, now hundreds are returning them many claiming that they “Are not fit for purpose”.

The EU probe is investigating whether Apple blocked apps from informing iPhone users of cheaper alternatives to access music subscriptions outside the App Store.

The probe was kicked off after European streaming Company Spotify launched a complaint with the EU just before the COVID epidemic in 2019.

It’s believed that the Commission has come to the conclusion that Apple’s actions are illegal and go against the bloc’s rules that enforce competition in the single market.

Apple who was recently found to have stolen Masimo oxygen measurement patents for their Apple Watch is facing a streaming ban.

The sponsor of the half time music during the recent Super Bowl Apple’s practice of blocking music services from letting users outside its App Store switch to cheaper alternatives is set to be banned.

At this stage it’s not known whether the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission will also take action against Apple.

Brussels will accuse Apple of abusing its powerful position and imposing anti-competitive trading practices on rivals, insiders claim, adding that the EU would say the tech giant’s terms were “unfair trading conditions”.

It is one of the most significant financial penalties levied by the EU on big tech companies. A series of fines against Google levied over several years and amounting to about €8bn are being contested in court.

Apple has never previously been fined for antitrust infringements by Brussels, but the company was hit in 2020 with a A$1.96bn fine in France for alleged anti-competitive behaviour.

The penalty was eventually revised down to be under a $1 billion.

The Financial Times claims that Brussels formally charged Apple in the anti-competitive probe in 2021. The commission narrowed the scope of the investigation last year and abandoned a charge of pushing developers to use its own in-app payment system.

Apple last month announced changes to its iOS mobile software, App Store and Safari browser in efforts to appease Brussels after long resisting such steps. But Spotify said at the time that Apple’s compliance was a “complete and total farce”.

Apple responded by saying that “the changes we’re sharing for apps in the European Union give developers choice — with new options to distribute iOS apps and process payments”.



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