Following complaints by Spotify against Apple that the latter is illicitly titling its App Store
policies in favor of its own Apple Music service to disadvantage Spotify and other competitors,
the EU is all set to commence an antitrust investigation against the iPhone maker.

While both the tech biggies refused to comment on the allegations, Apple had earlier overruled
Spotify’s claims by alleging the latter of having “financial motivations” and trying to avail undue
benefits from Apple’s App Store infrastructure without actually contributing to it. Regarding
further allegations against the iPhone company of trying to privilege Apple Music on a software
level, Apple has clearly brushed aside all such reports.

According to allegations filed with the EU, Apple’s policies require digital content providers like
Spotify to pay a 30% fee charge from their subscription revenue in the first year, followed by
15% in the second year, in order to use the former’s payment system for all subscriptions sold in
its App Store. Moreover, reports suggest that this policy applies only to Spotify and other music
subscription services, but not apps such as Uber.

In case Spotify wins the case, Apple might be forced to either lower or completely do away with
its subscription cuts. Moreover, the latter might also be required to give permission to all its
devices to work closely with any other third-party music streaming services (its rivals), as
against only working with Apple’s own. This could impact the company’s services revenue to a
significant extent.

Sources from the EU commented that they would be setting up an investigative body to probe
into the case in the coming few weeks. If found guilty, the legislative body can compel Apple to
alter its business policies as also levy a fine on the company, as high as 10% of its global
turnover.