.<\/span><\/a> The commission also has opened a separate antitrust investigation into Apple\u2019s mobile payments service.<\/p>\nApple hit back at both the commission and Spotify, saying it would appeal the penalty.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe decision was reached despite the Commission\u2019s failure to uncover any credible evidence of consumer harm, and ignores the realities of a market that is thriving, competitive, and growing fast,\u201d the company said in a statement.<\/p>\n
It said Spotify stood to benefit from the decision, asserting that the Swedish streaming service that holds a 56% share of Europe\u2019s music streaming market and doesn\u2019t pay Apple for using its App Store met 65 times with the commission over eight years.<\/p>\n
\u201cIronically, in the name of competition, today\u2019s decision just cements the dominant position of a successful European company that is the digital music market\u2019s runaway leader,\u201d Apple said.<\/p>\n
The commission\u2019s investigation initially centered on two concerns. One was the iPhone maker\u2019s practice of forcing app developers that are selling digital content to use its in-house payment system, which charges a 30% commission on all subscriptions.<\/p>\n
But the EU later dropped that to focus on how Apple prevents app makers from telling their users about cheaper ways to pay for subscriptions that don\u2019t involve going through an app.<\/p>\n
The investigation found that Apple banned streaming services from telling users about how much subscription offers cost outside of their apps, including links in their apps to pay for alternative subscriptions or even emailing users to tell them about different pricing options.<\/p>\n
The fine comes the same week that new EU rules are set to kick in that are aimed at preventing tech companies from dominating digital markets.<\/p>\n
The Digital Markets Act, due to take effect Thursday, imposes a set of do\u2019s and don\u2019ts on \u201cgatekeeper\u201d companies including Apple, Meta, Google parent Alphabet, and TikTok parent ByteDance \u2014 under threat of hefty fines.<\/p>\n
The DMA\u2019s provisions are designed to prevent tech giants from the sort of behavior that\u2019s at the heart of the Apple investigation. Apple has already revealed how it will comply, including allowing iPhone users in Europe to use app stores other than its own and enabling developers to offer alternative payment systems.<\/p>\n
The commission also has opened a separate antitrust investigation into Apple\u2019s mobile payments service, and the company has promised to open up its tap-and-go mobile payment system to rivals in order to resolve it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
LONDON, 4 Mar (AP) \u2014 The European Union leveled its first antitrust penalty against Apple on Monday, fining the U.S. tech giant nearly $2 billion for breaking the bloc\u2019s competition laws by unfairly favoring its own music streaming service over rivals. Apple banned app developers from \u201cfully informing iOS users about alternative and cheaper music […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-236294","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-national"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/236294","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=236294"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/236294\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=236294"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=236294"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=236294"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}