EU Antitrust Regulator Issues News Statement of Objections Against Apple

EU Antitrust Regulator Issues News Statement of Objections Against Apple

The European Union (EU) Antitrust Regulator has updated its antitrust case against Apple and the control it wields over music streaming services on iOS with potentially good news for complainant Spotify.

The European Commission, the EU body investigating the charges, stated that Apple allegedly breached antitrust laws by stopping rival music firms like Spotify from advertising where and how users could subscribe to their apps.

However, the current update to the case does not constitute a final ruling, and it is now up to Apple to come up with defense and prove the charges wrong.

In 2019, Spotify first made a complaint against Apple and the European Commission started its probe in 2020. The Commission issued an initial "statement of objections" against Apple in 2021, laying out the possible breaches of antitrust law.

The Apple, had declined rival streaming services like Spotify to even include links in the company's apps to their own subscription sign-ups. In March, 2022 Apple relaxed this restriction in order to close an antitrust investigation in Japan.

The Commission primarily focused on two issues: that Apple forced developers to use its own in-app payments system for which it collects a fee (the "IAP obligation"), and that Apple stopped developers from advertising alternative ways to subscribe to their apps (the "anti-steering obligations").

The Commission in its updated statement of objections has dropped the first charge, saying it "no longer take a position as to the legality of the IAP obligation," and is focusing on the second.

The Commission has also reinforced its language about this charge, declaring a "preliminary view" that "Apple's anti-steering obligations are unfair trading conditions in breach of Article 102 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union ('TFEU')."

In January, 2023, Spotify and other European companies urged the Commission to hurry up its investigation and take "swift and decisive action" against Apple.

The Commission observed, "there is no legal deadline for bringing an antitrust investigation to an end."

If delayed much further, the case is also likely to run into a whole new set of obligations Apple and others will have to abide by under the EU's coming Digital Markets Act, or DMA. These will force Apple to allow third-party app stores and app sideloading on iOS for the first time.