EU to probe Spotify’s rivalry claims against Apple

Spotify has filed a complaint against Apple with the European Commission saying that the company has fallen prey to the iPhone-maker’s discriminatory practices on its App Store.

Rejecting Spotify’s assertions, Apple argued that Spotify was really driven by “financial motivations” and wanted to benefit from the App Store’s infrastructure without contributing to it. (REUTERS)

The European Union (EU) has decided to investigate Swedish music-streaming giant Spotify's complaint against Apple over unfairly hindering its rivals and favouring Apple Music through its App Store policies.

The exact situation on the subject remains unclear as of now since both the companies have declined to comment on the report, Engadget reported on Sunday.

Earlier in March, Spotify CEO Daniel Ek announced via a post that Spotify has filed a complaint against Apple with the European Commission saying that the company has fallen prey to the iPhone-maker's discriminatory practices on its App Store.

Rejecting Spotify's assertions, Apple argued that Spotify was really driven by "financial motivations" and wanted to benefit from the App Store's infrastructure without contributing to it, the report said.

According to the App Store guidelines, developers have to provide a 30 per cent cut of their subscription revenue in the first year and 15 per cent in the second.

That leaves providers either charging extra for App Store-based subscriptions (as Spotify does now) or eating a large portion of their costs, the report added.

The iPhone-maker also rejected notions that it was giving a privilege to Apple Music on a software level, going so far as to say it was talking to Spotify about AirPlay and Siri integrations.

However, there is no certainty that an investigation would eventually lead to Spotify's victory.

Spotify's victory could make Apple reduce or eliminate its cut of subscriptions, or ensure that its devices can work as closely with third-party media services as they do with Apple's own, the report noted.

While Spotify has a total of 217 million monthly active users worldwide, Apple Music only has 50 million users from around the globe.