Apple will be fined more than $500 million under EU antitrust law

Apple will reportedly have to pay around €500 million (about US$539 million) in the EU to stifle competition against Apple Music on the iPhone. Financial Times mentioned The fine comes this morning after regulators in Brussels, Belgium, investigated Spotify's complaint that Apple blocked apps from telling users about cheaper alternatives to Apple's music service.

The issue stems from Apple's efforts to keep apps and users confined within its App Store payments system. Spotify complained in 2019 that Apple's policies weakened competition against Apple Music, and launched an investigation in the European Union the following year. The European Union scaled back its objections to oppose Apple's refusal to even allow developers to link to their own subscriptions within their apps — a policy Apple changed in 2022 following regulatory pressure in Japan.

$500 million may seem like a lot, but a much larger fine of close to $40 billion (or 10% of Apple's global annual sales volume) was on the table when the European Union decided to impose a $500 million fine on Apple. . Update their objections last year. Apple was charged more than $1 billion in 2020, but French authorities reduced that to about $366 million after the company appealed.

Apple representative Emma Wilson said the edge via email that the company “does not comment on speculation” and referred us to previous statements made by another Apple spokeswoman, Hannah Smith, who He said in February last year The company hopes that the committee will stop pursuing the case, which Smith said has “no merit.” European Commission spokeswoman Lea Zuber declined to comment.

Spotify had not responded by press time.