Yesterday, Spotify claimed that Apple is “choking competition” and seriously harming the internet economy with its complicated Appstore policies.
Apple’s rules make it harder for Spotify to sell audiobooks since they cannot list the price of the book, send emails directing users to purchase the book, or explain where and how to buy the audiobook.
Moreover, Apple charges up to a 30% commission on purchases listed on the App Store which forced Spotify to find a way around and list audiobooks on their website.
Spotify filed a complaint about Apple with the European Commission four years ago, but to no avail.
“Apple continues to dictate what online innovation looks like, doing serious harm to the internet economy, choking competition and the imagination of app developers,” said Daniel Ek, CEO of Spotify.
The Swedish audio streaming company was fairly satisfied with initial Apple Guidelines around safety, privacy, and quality around 2010-2011.
However, the constant change of rules and interpretations of the same in different ways at different times put competitors like Spotify at a major disadvantage.
“With our Audiobooks launch, Apple has once again proven just how brazen it is willing to be with its App Store rules, constantly shifting the goalposts to disadvantage their competitors.”
“In the absence of government intervention—in Europe, the U.S., or any other market around the world—Apple has shown time and again that it will not self-regulate and has no real incentive to change.”
