Source: Apple will face an additional EU antitrust charge in the coming weeks, in an investigation into music streaming triggered by a complaint from Spotify
Apple (AAPL.O) faces an additional EU antitrust charge in the coming weeks in an investigation triggered by a complaint from Spotify …
Context & Ripple Effects
Spotify's complaint first moved into a formal EU inquiry in 2019, putting Apple's App Store fees and treatment of music-streaming rivals under scrutiny. The case then advanced toward antitrust charges over App Store rules for competing music services in 2021.
The additional charge marks a further escalation in the same long-running dispute, rather than a separate challenge to Apple. It gives the European Commission another formal allegation to pursue in the Spotify-triggered investigation.
First-order effects
- Apple must prepare a response to an additional European Commission charge alongside the existing music-streaming case.
- Spotify gains further procedural backing for its complaint that Apple's App Store rules disadvantage competing music-streaming services.
Second-order effects
- Other music-streaming services that rely on the App Store gain a more consequential regulatory test of the rules first examined in the EU inquiry launched after Spotify's complaint.
- Apple's defense of its App Store policies becomes more important for its relationships with developers that compete with its own services.
Third-order effects
- The case points toward EU competition enforcement treating platform rules as a central issue when a platform operator also offers a competing service, with formal charges becoming a lever for changing those rules.
The trend: European regulators are increasingly using antitrust cases to test whether app-store operators can apply rules to third-party services while competing in the same markets.