Today, the European Union slammed its fist on the table, trying to tell the world that it is more than a cheerful petanque club. A huge antitrust fine for Apple (1.8 billion) It may well sound like heavenly music to the continent’s middle ear.. It’s a measure that helps Spotify in this battleground for streaming dominance in music consumption, where the business is over following the gradual collapse of the physical format.
Discussion: Commissions Apple imposes on its competitors in the ‘App Store’ Restrictions on the streaming market (30% of its subscriptions) and restriction of access to other (cheap) offers, all to benefit its own service, the Apple Music store, constitute a case of excess that undermines the principle of free competition. . Apple’s suggestion that its ‘App Store’ will not be as hostile to Spotify as it seems gives something worth thinking about. The Swedish platform largely dominates the European market (it is said to have a 56% share, more than double that of Apple Music).
And if the ‘App Store’ is an Apple invention, one might think it’s understandable that it intends to favor its own store over other brands that want to sell their products through its own channel. But no matter how much good Apple has done to get the world on its feet, the EU has objections. In the case of music, he observes a case of abuse of dominant position in a particular market.
The problem has come to this. There has been a secret dominance for years of a few digital players that determine the fate of entire industries such as music. (and others, the press itself), the inability of any legal framework to impose limits on them. Going to the extreme of punishment (we don’t know whether this will be formalized: Apple has announced it will appeal, of course) is not the best scenario, and some kind of structural agreement would have been preferable some time ago. It may be too late to fix it and the case could take years to resolve. For now, victory is more moral for Spotify than anything else. We’ll see. Meanwhile, Europeans will be counting the days to buy the iPhone 16 after applauding the punishment.