Spotify says Apple's behavior is “choking competition” after Apple rejected its proposed audiobook purchasing process three times for breaking App Store rules
The company called Apple practices “anticompetitive” and said it was “choking competition” in a blog post published …
Context & Ripple Effects
Spotify's audiobook dispute is the latest episode in a long-running fight over App Store terms: the company filed a European Commission antitrust complaint over Apple’s rules in 2019, after an earlier app-rejection clash in which Apple said Spotify sought preferential treatment.
The immediate practical outcome was visible in Spotify’s subsequent removal of audiobook purchasing options from its iOS app. The conflict now reaches a new transaction category, rather than remaining solely a policy argument over music services.
First-order effects
- Spotify must remove or redesign the proposed iOS audiobook purchase flow after Apple rejected it three times under App Store rules.
- Apple preserves its control over how Spotify presents audiobook purchases inside the App Store, while Spotify tells users the compliant alternative is not ideal.
Second-order effects
- The rejected flow gives Spotify a specific enforcement episode to add to its prior calls for authorities to curb Apple’s alleged anticompetitive behavior.
- Other services seeking to sell digital content in iOS face the same constraint: an in-app purchasing design must clear Apple’s rules before it can reach users.
Third-order effects
- If enforcement disputes keep extending into new content categories, App Store policy will increasingly determine not only app distribution but also which digital-service transactions can occur within iOS.
- The recurring Apple-Spotify conflict strengthens the case for treating platform payment and purchase rules as a competition-policy issue, rather than a bilateral app-review dispute.
The trend: Platform gatekeepers are exerting competitive influence through the rules that govern how third-party digital services convert iOS users into buyers.