EU to investigate Apple over Spotify’s competition allegations

The European Union (EU) is set to kick-start investigations into Apple, US multinational tech company, following Spotify’s antitrust allegations.

According to a report by the Financial Times, EU competition commissioners have decided to launch an antitrust investigation into allegations that Apple unfairly hinders Spotify and other rivals to Apple Music through App store policies.

It is believed that the investigation would start in the “next few weeks.”

Spotify had in March filed an antitrust complaint against Apple in which it argued that the iPhone maker enforced App store rules that “purposely limit choice and stifle innovation at the expense of the user experience.”

It claimed that Apple’s 30 percent cut from subscriptions made via its own App store and the blocking of Spotify’s access to products and updates for their app have put them at a disadvantage.

“Apple has introduced rules to App Store that purposely limit choice and stifle innovation at the expense of the user experience, essentially acting as both a player and referee to deliberately disadvantage app developers,” said Daniel Ek, Spotify’s CEO.

In response to the allegation leveled against it, Apple said it had approved and distributed nearly 200 updates on Spotify’s behalf which resulted in well over 300 million downloads of the Spotify app.

“After using the App Store for years to dramatically grow their business, Spotify seeks to keep all the benefits of the App Store ecosystem without making any contributions to that marketplace,” Apple alleged.

“Spotify distributes music while making ever-smaller contributions to the artists; musicians; and songwriters who create them, even going so far as to take these creators to court.”

Following the intensity of the allegations, the European Commission (EC), the EU’s regulatory body, is expected to confirm a date for the commencement of preliminary investigation in the coming weeks.