Spotify, which previously won a legal battle against Apple in the EU, now wants regulators to further clamp down on the American company which it claims is in breach of the bloc’s Digital Markets Act.
Spotify Chief Executive Officer Daniel Ek said that Apple’s attempts to conform with the EU’s Big Tech rules were a “farce”, and that Apple used a “well-established pattern of delaying and stalling” its compliance with the DMA.
“It is time for Europe to show that we are going to enforce the law that’s already been passed,” Ek told Bloomberg.
EU competition chief Teresa Ribera is expected to rule on Apple’s compliance with the DMA by the end of March.
Companies found flouting the digital law could be fined up to 10% of their global annual revenue.
Spotify Chief Executive Officer Daniel Ek
In 2024, following an antitrust complaint from Spotify, the European Commission hit Apple with a €1.8 billion (A$3.06 billion) fine for unfairly favouring its own music streaming service over rivals.
Ek now wants the EU to force Apple to allow alternative app stores on the iPhone, a requirement to comply with the DMA, to operate under more favourable conditions. Last year, Apple unveiled plans for alternative app marketplaces on iOS, but with conditions and costs attached.
“The way Apple ended up allowing for more stores was to make it almost universally impossible to create a new one, but then also by levying an enormous amount of fees so that it would be impossible for them to compete,” said Ek.
The EU has taken tough action against Apple in the recent past. In September last year, Apple lost a high-profile legal fight in the EU over a €13 billion (A$21.55 billion) Irish tax bill.
The EU’s Court of Justice (ECJ) in Luxembourg backed a landmark 2016 decision that Ireland broke state-aid law by giving Apple an unfair advantage.
The ECJ ruling came after years of legal arguments about whether the European Commission was right to demand in 2016 that €13bn (A$21.55 billion) in “illegal” tax breaks for Apple should be repaid because it gave it an unfair advantage.
The EU will now have to carefully consider whether Apple should be hit with further fines considering that the Trump administration has seemingly linked penalties on American companies as a reason to impose tariffs on the countries imposing them – in this case the entire EU.
Spotify recorded its first-ever annual profit last year. It reported net income of €1.14 billion (A$1.89 billion) for 2024.
Total active monthly users increased to 675 million, and more importantly its paid subscribers increased 11% to 263 million.
