Sen. Al Franken, Consumer Watchdog ask regulators to investigate Apple Music for possible anticompetitive practices
Dustin Volz / National Journal :
Context & Ripple Effects
Regulatory heat on Apple Music was already building before today: New York and Connecticut attorneys general opened an investigation into whether Apple and the major labels colluded in discussions about rival freemium services like Spotify in June, and sources reported last week that the FTC is examining how Apple treats competing streaming services in its App Store. European regulators had separately put Apple's streaming plans under the microscope back in April.
Sen. Al Franken and Consumer Watchdog now add explicit political pressure to that legal track, asking regulators to investigate whether Apple Music itself — launched without a free tier — constitutes an anticompetitive move against ad-supported rivals.
First-order effects
- The FTC's inquiry into App Store treatment of rival streamers (reported days ago) now faces congressional and consumer-group pressure to escalate from a quiet look-see into a formal investigation of Apple Music's launch terms.
- Apple must defend both fronts simultaneously: its label negotiations over free tiers are already under state AG scrutiny while its no-free-tier service design draws fresh antitrust questioning.
Second-order effects
- The major music labels come under sharper scrutiny as potential co-conspirators in suppressing freemium competitors, raising the compliance cost of every future negotiation with Apple over pricing and tier structure.
- Rivals like Spotify gain a lobbying opening: official US and European attention to Apple's streaming behavior gives them grounds to press their case with regulators rather than compete purely in the market.
Third-order effects
- If the pattern holds — April's European scrutiny, June's AG probe, July's FTC look, now Senate pressure — it points toward the structural confrontation that later materialized when Spotify filed its formal anti-trust complaint with the European Commission over App Store rules.
- App Store gatekeeping becomes the durable battleground: the same store-treatment questions raised about music streaming set a template regulators can apply to any category where Apple distributes competing services alongside its own.
The trend: Apple's dual role as platform owner and streaming competitor is drawing escalating multi-jurisdiction regulatory scrutiny — US state attorneys general, the FTC, Congress, and European regulators — moving from informal inquiries toward formal complaints.