Apple’s ongoing feud with Spotify in the EU has taken a turn against it. The bloc’s European Commission has ruled that the fruit company must pay the music streaming service US$2 billion (~RM9.46 billion) in fines.
The legal battle between Apple and Spotify goes back several years; when the company from Cupertino launched its own streaming service, Apple Music, back in 2015. As explained by Wired, the early days of the feud were, at the very least, civil, with both parties merely taking the mickey with each other. That all changed when politicians in the EU began targetting Big Tech and demanding laws for them.
This effectively gave Spotify the ammunition to become more vocal, speaking out against Apple, and the US$2 billion fine is undoubtedly proof that dialing up the pressure is working. The fine is also considerably bigger than what the fruit company expected, and that in turn caused its stocks to drop by 3%. For that matter, the fine is also one of the biggest that the EU has ever slapped on a company; initial reports suggested that the fine would be more within the area of US$500 million (~RM2.36 billion).
In light of the EU decision, Apple also released a statement, claiming that Spotify has paid it nothing. “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.”
(Source: Wired)
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