The European Commission (EC) has modified this Tuesday the charges of which it had accused Apple in 2021 for allegedly violating free competition in the online music market by abusing its dominant position. Specifically, Brussels has announced, in a statement collected by the Efe agency, the sending of a statement of objections to Apple in which it clarifies its concerns about the rules of the company’s virtual store of applications, the App Store, for online music providers, such as Spotify.
The App Store is the only way for iPhone and iPad users to download apps for those devices, so app developers have to abide by Apple’s rules if they want to reach those consumers. In April 2021, the Community Executive sent a first statement of objections in which it accused Apple of abusing its dominant position in the online music market by imposing its own integrated payment technology on developers of streaming applications. musical.
Then, he also accused the American technology of shutting down the ability of app developers to inform iPhone and iPad users about alternative music subscription services. However, in the statement of charges released this Tuesday, the first accusation is eliminated.
Thus, Brussels points out that its investigation focuses from now on the contractual restrictions that Apple imposed on application developers, which prevents them from informing iPhone and iPad users about alternative music subscription services with lower prices outside of the application and how to choose them.
For the EC, Apple’s policies constitute “unfair commercial conditions” that violate community standards. According to Brussels, the rule that prevents reporting on alternatives “is neither necessary nor proportionate” and is “harmful” for users of online music services on Apple mobile devices, “who may end up paying more.” In addition, it considers that it affects “negatively” the interests of those who develop online music applications by limiting the effective choice of the consumer.
