Serial patent thieves Apple has been fined a massive A$3 billion dollars, now they have gone after audio streaming Spotify, who kicked off the European investigation into the behaviour of the big US Company.
This is a tech Company who hates competition and wants to dominate every aspect of their business even if that means stealing patented technology and trying to nobble competitors with questionable demands.
This time round Apple prevented streaming services from informing users of payment options outside of their Apple app store, the European Commission said.
Competition commissioner Margrethe Vestager said Apple abused its dominant position in the market for a more than a decade and they are going to have to pay for their questionable practises.
She ordered the US tech giant to remove all the restrictions now Apple has said it will appeal against the decision which is seen as a means to try and get the fine reduced or killed off.
In the past Apple has not been successful with their appeals as they were when they stole Masimo Oxygen measurement technology for their Apple Watches.
The decision comes after the European Union started an investigation five years ago after Spotify lodged a complaint about Apple practises.
In response Apple launched a blistering attack on Spotify – essentially accusing its rival of insatiable greed – and vowed to launch a legal challenge.
This was expected as Apple was never going to take a fine of this magnitude without a fight and their normal mudslinging.
The Commission xlaims that they have applied a base line fine and slapped an additional lump sum of €1.8 billion on top “to ensure that the overall fine imposed on Apple is sufficiently deterrent.”
The complaint and the action taken by the EU centred around the restriction Apple placed on Spotify who struggles to make a profit, and Apple’s 30% fee…
Vestager said Apple had restricted “developers from informing consumers about alternative, cheaper music services available outside of the Apple ecosystem”.
“This is illegal under EU antitrust rules,” she said.
Apple’s response to their questionable actions was “No one has been harmed”.
Spotify claims that the restrictions benefit Apple Music.
Digital Markets Act
In January, the BBC reports, Apple announced plans to allow EU customers to download apps outside of their own app store, as the introduction of the Digital Markets Act (DMA) drew closer.
The aim of the European Union’s DMA is to help competition in the technology sector and to try to break down the stronghold the likes of Apple and Google have on the market.
The tech companies were given six months from August last year to comply with a full list of requirements under the new legislation or face a fine of up to 10% of their annual turnover.
The firms have until later this week to comply with a raft of changes announced since the start of the year, as Apple, Meta and TikTok pursue challenges to aspects of the law.
Observers claim that the move will have a “significant impact” on the way designated platforms operate within the EU.
“It is a more effective but also much blunter legal tool in the fight against market concentration in the digital economy,” one observer claimed.
Last week, Spotify and 33 other companies operating across a wide range of digital sectors wrote to the European Commission with a renewed attack on Apple’s “lack of compliance” with the DMA.
“Apple’s new terms not only disregard both the spirit and letter of the law, but if left unchanged, make a mockery of the DMA and the considerable efforts by the European Commission and EU institutions to make digital markets competitive,” it said.