Apple is preparing for a confrontation with European regulators.
Antimonopoly regulators of the European Union accused the technology giant of being involved in the practice of limiting the possibility of competition and acting in this case contrary to generally accepted rules and regulations. The fact that became a precedent and a kind of catalyst for this trial was allegedly illegal actions against Spotify Technology SA in the App Store. Regulators claim that the technology giant has set restrictions in its online marketplace regarding the possibility of attracting new users of the music application.
A hearing on the case will be held in Brussels on Friday, June 30. The tech giant has already stated that during the upcoming proceedings, it will defend the position according to which European regulators mistakenly accused it of applying restrictive practices against the streaming service.
The company claims that over the past two years, it has been carrying out thorough work to eliminate any problems related to competition. The tech giant will argue that the result of these efforts was the establishment of a fair balance between the interests of Apple and application developers. This was reported by the media with reference to an anonymous source who is aware of the company’s plans regarding the formulation of a position in the context of the upcoming proceedings.
In February, the EU issued an indictment to Apple, which was previously edited. Regulators narrowed the scope of the investigation but kept the focus on contractual restrictions, due to which application developers lost the opportunity to inform owners of the technology giant’s devices about alternative subscription options for services that provide access to listening to large volumes of music, podcasts, and audiobooks.
Spotify is currently the most popular online music service in Europe. This company exposes Apple to extremely negative criticism. The EU antitrust division, based on a request from Spotify, initiated proceedings against the technology giant over its involvement in an unfair reduction in subscription fees.
The investigation is currently ongoing, and the most likely outcome cannot yet be predicted. If the final decision is not made in favor of the tech giant, Apple will face a measure of economic impact in the form of a fine of up to 10% of the company’s total annual sales. To avoid this result, the iPhone manufacturer will have to convince the European antimonopoly authorities that there are no violations concerning compliance with the principles and rules of fair competition.
The current EU legislation does not provide for a clearly defined time frame for such proceedings. This means that the investigation time is unlimited.
As we have reported earlier, Appeals Court Allows Links to Payments Outside Apple App Store.
