The European Union will be on the verge of imposing a fine of 500 million euros on Apple – Liberation

A big plum in sight for an apple. The European Commission is reportedly set to fine Apple for the first time for breaking European law on access to music streaming services. Financial Times. The fine, which should be announced in March, will be steep: it will be around 500 million euros.

Specifically, Apple has been accused of favoring its own services at the expense of its competitors. The investigation was launched after Spotify complained to EU regulators in 2019 about abuse of a dominant position. Swedish company Spotify criticized the American firm, which owns the App Store, the world’s second-largest mobile application distributor after Google Play, for imposing a 30% commission on music streaming services that market their paid offerings through its store. The intention is to force Spotify to increase the subscription price for its users and eventually encourage them to prefer Apple Music, which is offered at a lower price.

Apple has never been fined by Brussels for antitrust violations so far. However, the American giant was fined a whopping 1.1 billion euros by France in 2020 for anti-competitive behavior. After an appeal, the fine was eventually reduced to 372 million euros.

In January, Apple announced changes to its iOS mobile software, App Store and Safari browser to satisfy Brussels. These changes, which should come into effect in March, are nonetheless worthy “A complete and utter farce” via Spotify. Definitely, explains the echoIf this new device will allow you to download apps to your iPhone “Outside the App Store”, it should be chargeable. So Apple will continue to favor its own services at the expense of its competitors.