Spotify chief urges EU to accelerate antitrust case against Apple

Spotify chief urges EU to accelerate antitrust case against Apple
Photo: https://www.theverge.com/2022/5/16/23074909/spotify-experiments-musician-nft-galleries 09.09.2022 774

The founder of music streaming app Spotify has used a rare visit to Brussels to apply personal pressure on the European Commission for a case against Apple’s practices to be accelerated.

In an interview with the Financial Times, Swedish billionaire Daniel Ek said he spoke with competition commissioner Margrethe Vestager about what he sees as Apple’s “anti-competitive conduct”.

“It’s a picture of a company that keeps zigging and zagging to avoid doing anything,” he said, adding that other regulators, including in Japan, the Netherlands and South Korea, “have come down pretty hard on” Apple over similar issues. He urged the commission to do the same.

Spotify filed a complaint with European regulators in 2019 claiming Apple was taking a 30 per cent cut of its subscription fees for featuring it in the App Store and denying the streaming service the right to tell its users that other ways of upgrading were available. The commission formally charged Apple with breaking EU law earlier this year.

There is no fixed deadline for the commission to issue its final ruling and officials have not indicated when it might be given. Whoever loses the case is likely to appeal to the EU courts.

Source: Financial Times

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