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Apple Faces Its First EU Antitrust Fine Over Music Subscription Services

AInvestMonday, Feb 19, 2024 3:09 am ET
1min read

Following the legislation of Type-C as the unified interface for the European continent, forcing Apple to abandon its inherited Lightning interface, the European Union is setting new rules for the consumer electronics leader.

Now, Apple will face a fine of 500 million Euros for its anti-competitive behavior in the music subscription service market, and the final decision will be announced as early as next month.

Insiders indicate that Apple's fine was due to preventing other competitors from notifying iPhone users of cheaper payment methods outside of Apple's subscription channels. European streaming giant Spotify officially filed the complaint in 2019, prompting an EU regulatory investigation.

After a series of investigations, it appears that Brussels now believes that Apple's behavior involves abusing market dominance and imposing anti-competitive restrictions on competitors, and will order a ban on similar actions by Apple. According to the EU's antitrust rules, Apple could face a fine of up to 10% of global revenue.

Meanwhile, this impending fine will be the first antitrust fine that Apple has received from the EU, but it's not the first American company to receive such punishment. Previously, the EU has dished out a total of 8 billion Euros in fines to another US tech giant Google, and legal proceedings are currently underway.

However, compared to the intermittent antitrust investigations, for companies like Apple, Google, and Amazon, their EU market businesses will soon face new challenges: These technology giants will need to fully comply with all provisions of the EU Digital Markets Act by the beginning of March.

Under the pressure of this legislation, Apple announced at the end of January that starting from March 2024, European Apple users will be able to install software applications through channels outside the official app store.

At the same time, according to earlier reports, Apple will be sued by the US Department of Justice as early as the coming March, with the problem still being anti-competition.

The US Department of Justice lawsuit will focus on Apple's restrictions on the iPhone and iPad, hindering effective competition from competitors. The US Department of Justice began its antitrust investigation of Apple in 2019, but law enforcement chose to prioritize taking Google, Amazon, and Meta to court first.

It's worth noting that the US Department of Justice is also closely monitoring Apple's actions under the EU Digital Markets Act, as the core issues involved are the same.


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