The European Commission (EC) has fined Apple €1.84bn (£1.57bn) for “abusing” its dominant position and favouring its own music streaming app over rivals.
The EC said on Monday it has found that the tech giant broke EU antitrust rules by preventing app developers from telling iOS users about cheaper music subscription options outside of the App Store.
It said this may have caused iPhone users to pay “significantly higher prices” for music streaming subscriptions due to Apple’s high commission fees passed on to consumers.
“For a decade, Apple abused its dominant position in the market for the distribution of music streaming apps through the App Store,” said Margrethe Vestager, Executive Vice-President in charge of competition policy.
“Apple illegally restricted app developers’ ability to inform users about cheaper options to buy [music], outside the [Apple] ecosystem,” she added in a post on X.
Today, @EU_Commission has fined @Apple 1.84 bn € for abusing its dominant position on the market for the distribution of #music #streaming #apps.
👉@Apple illegally restricted #app developers’ ability to inform #users about cheaper options to buy🎶, outside the🍏ecosystem.
— Margrethe Vestager (@vestager) March 4, 2024
The EU first began investigating Apple’s practices in 2020 following an antitrust campaign from Spotify.
The Swedish streamer has claimed Apple leverages its platform dominance to “disadvantage competitive services by unfairly penalizing them for the mere fact that these companies exist to provide the same offerings that Apple increasingly relies on— like music streaming, podcasts, video, audio books and gaming.”
Apple has rejected the EC’s fine and plans to appeal it. It said in a statement that regulators failed to “uncover any credible evidence of consumer harm, and ignores the realities of a market that is thriving, competitive, and growing fast.” It plans to appeal the fine.
At the start of February, the company posted quarterly revenue of $119.6bn (£94.4bn), a year-on-year increase of two per cent.