The European Commission has fined Apple over €1.8 billion for abusing its dominant position on the market for the distribution of music streaming apps to iPhone and iPad users (‘iOS users') through its App Store. In particular, the Commission found that Apple applied restrictions on app developers preventing them from informing iOS users about alternative and cheaper music subscription services available outside of the app (‘anti-steering provisions'). This is illegal under EU antitrust rules.
Despite that success, and the App Store’s role in making it possible, Spotify pays Apple nothing.
That's because Spotify doesn't owe you anything. If I release a piece of software for Apple, Android, Linux, Windows, etc., I don't owe these OSes anything for that. Apple makes plenty of money selling hardware, that's good enough for them.
These delusional bastards really need a few slaps around their heads to get this concept to sink in.
I can see an argument for owing something for hosting the app in the App Store, but certainly not 30% of what every user pays or whatever ridiculous amount Apple charges. Price it like hosting a file on S3, perhaps.
They're used to being treated like God's special little tech company here in the states, so of course they're going to throw a fucking tantrum when faced with a regulatory body that actually treats them as they should be treated.
They're getting punished for keeping the users in a golden cage, and they are mad that they might have to give some of that power away. You can tell by the fact that not a single paragraph actually addresses the reason for the fine. The EU doesn't give a damn how many times you flew engineers to Stockholm, this is about the conditions in which iOS operates that hurt both developers and users. But we already knew that Apple doesn't give a fly about users, it's money and nothing else for them. “Spotify doesn't pay Apple” oh cry me a river.
Despite that success, and the App Store’s role in making it possible, Spotify pays Apple nothing. That’s because Spotify — like many developers on the App Store — made a choice. Instead of selling subscriptions in their app, they sell them on their website. And Apple doesn’t collect a commission on those purchases.
Oh noooooo, Apple is only making most of the money, instead of all the money 😭
And it’s so utterly ignorant of WHY the fine was issued. This isn’t about a competitors market position, it’s about Apple using its own dominant market position to push its own service. Using a monopoly to create another monopoly is anti-competitive.
I am wondering if it's really true, that Spotify pays nothing to Apple. If my information is correct every app provider needs to have at least one active Apple Developer subscription (in the case of Spotify there is probably far more than just one account involved). If it is true that Spotify pays nothing to Apple the only possibility is that Apple invited them to bring their app to iOS and granted them free access.
I know 99 USD is not what Apple is after, but it seems dishonest to not disclose this.
They’re just bitter that Spotify is leading the market and not Apple Music and they crybaby because of that. They’ve been bullying Spotify from the beginning and there has been bad blood on both sides for years. Apple has not made it easy for Spotify, why would Spotify give them any more money? They could have worked together, allowing HomePod and Siri to control Spotify and other cross integrations then that would have maybe been a reason to share revenue. But that’s kinda like The Little Red Hen here.
Under the App Store’s reader rule, Spotify can also include a link in their app to a webpage where users can create or manage an account.
Instead, Spotify wants to bend the rules in their favor by embedding subscription prices in their app without using the App Store’s In-App Purchase system.
I'm confused now. What is a "reader app"?
Spotify wants to make subscriptions an app functionality and Apple restricts that to it's own payment system - and the alternative they provide is external websites?
Why the heck is it called a "reader rule" and "reader app"?
Global net income, yes. But it is 5% of the income from the EU. As much as I dislike Apple, the fine seems to be reasonable. I do want to see it bumped up if they keep on with their horseplay.
Even though the Commission has fined the company concerned, damages may be awarded by national courts without being reduced on account of the Commission fine.
So if/after Apple's appeal is declined, Spotify - the driving force of this EU investigation - can sue Apple for damages with additional cost to Apple.
For a middle class person, that’s equivalent of being sued for €1000, with a good chance of getting away with €100 even when losing. When will fines for big multinationals ever be adequate?
According to this, the fine includes a punitive damage:
Vestager said that the lump sum of €1.8 billion had been added as a deterrent since the basic amount of the fine, which she compared to a "parking ticket," would have been quite small.
The total fine of €1.84 billion amounts to 0.5% of Apple's worldwide turnover, according to Vestager.
Still not enough in my opinion, but hopefully if this sticks, future damage awards will be even higher. In any case, there will be a lot more fines and regulations coming down on Apple into the future (thanks in large part to the DMA), so even though this is just a single instance, they will hopefully add up pretty significantly in the coming years.
While I do agree that the fine could be higher, this is not like a US regulatory lawsuit. In the EU, fines have to be paid immediately, and Apple can appeal if it wants and may receive some of the money it paid back. Apple doesn't get to drag it out, and there are no out of court settlements that usually get the fine amount down.
So doesn’t Spotify pay them the 100 dollars a year to be a developer? So Apple says they get nothing for from Spotify for developing the platform and tools, but they’re outright lying. And if the 100 isn’t enough increase the price.
Apple just seems like a crying baby in this letter.
It's very indicative of the culture though. That people pay hundreds of dollars a year just for the privilege of using their products is taken for granted.
In case anyone is wondering where the money is going: The EU budget. The EU doesn't really get to keep it though because membership fees will be lowered by that amount next year so the actual windfall goes to member state budgets.
Nice to see a reasonably sized fine. In the US it would be like 5 million and they'd spend 10 times that fighting it in court and still not affect their profits for the month.
Not necessarily, it could be that if they put the work into something else instead they would've made more when you account for the fine, so it could still not be worth it compared to alternatives.
Spotify should have handled their issues with the app store rules but just not making an IOS app. If the biggest music streaming service in the world didn't work with iPhones maybe Apple would have had to reconsider some things.
Conversely, not being on a platform with a very considerable amount of their current userbase could cost them massive amounts of subscribers, and possibly allow competitors to take their place.
Malta’s budget as I undersand 7 billion euros. Meanwhile crApple’s revenue is 385 billion dollars. 1 billion euros is less than 1% of revenue. At this scale it’s cost of doing business, not a fine.
It seems yes, it is smaller than smallest budget in EU. Malta's budget as I undersand 7 billion euros. Meanwhile crApple's revenue is 385 billion dollars. 1 billion euros is less than 1% of revenue. At this scale it's cost of doing business, not a fine.