On March 4th, Apple was fined 1.8 billion euros by the European Union for abusing App Store rules. EU regulatory agencies have stated that Apple illegally prevents app developers from providing information on alternative and cheaper music subscription services to users outside of its app store. Margrethe Vestager, Executive Vice President and Competition Commissioner of the European Commission, also announced the news on social media.
According to EU antitrust rules, this is illegal behavior. The committee stated that Apple's behavior has been ongoing for nearly a decade, which means many users have "paid much higher prices for music streaming subscriptions.".
However, Apple announced on its official website that it will file an appeal. "EU regulatory agencies have failed to find reliable evidence of any harm to consumers and have ignored the reality of a thriving, fiercely competitive, and rapidly growing market."
Apple also mentioned that the main advocate and biggest beneficiary of this decision is music streaming Spotify (which has a 56% share of the European music streaming market), which met with the European Commission more than 65 times during this survey.
It is worth mentioning that at the time of the EU fine, Apple is preparing to thoroughly revise its application distribution rules in the EU to comply with the Digital Markets Act, which came into effect on March 7th. Apple will provide software side loading functionality for iPhone and iPad users in Europe. Specifically, the App Store will be split in two, with a dedicated version for EU countries and another version for the rest of the world.
In addition, the Russian side also plans to legislate to require Apple to open its iOS third-party app store.