It is the first antitrust penalty levelled by the European Union against the U.S. tech giant fining approximately 2 billion euros (nearly INR 16,000 crores) as it is believed to have been using unfair trade practices by breaking the bloc’s competitive laws to promote its music streaming services.
What is the case against Apple ?
Apple is fined for not allowing Spotify and other music streaming services to inform users about payment methods outside of the App Store, a decision in response to a complaint filed in 2019.
In 2019, the Swedish Music streaming service and its big-time rival – Spotify, filed a complaint about the restriction being imposed, and also a 30% store fee being charged by Apple on the purchase of the app, which is free.
The European Commission said, “Apple has behaved this way for almost a decade, which meant many users paid “significantly higher prices for music streaming subscriptions.”
Alongside the penalty of 1.8 billion euros, there will be a long-running investigation against the tech giant.
EU to target other big tech companies too
After Apple, the EU has been targeting other big tech companies and making global efforts to crack down on them. There have been three fines for Google, making it a total of 8 billion euros and has charged META with distorting the online classified ad market while Apple is trying to resolve another antitrust investigation into mobile payments service as it promises to open up its tap-and-go mobile payment services to all its rivals.
The European Union explained that the fine against Apple is so high because it is inclusive of a big extra lump sum amount to prevent Apple from being offensive in its act again and not obstruct other tech companies from carrying out the same act.
