Brussels fined Apple €1.84 billion ($2 billion) for stifling competition from music apps by imposing restrictions on the App Store, marking the first fine Apple has faced for violating EU laws.
The original €40 million fine was amplified by a whopping €1.8 billion included as a deterrent, a first for EU antitrust bodies.
The European Commission previously accused Apple last year of preventing Swedish streaming service Spotify and others from informing users about the existence of payment options outside the App Store, after Spotify filed its complaint in 2019.
Apple’s restrictions are said to constitute unfair trading conditions. This is a relatively new narrative in the antitrust case, and the Dutch antitrust agency used it in a decision it took against Apple in 2021 in a case brought by dating app providers, in which it ordered it to stop monopolistic behavior.
Apple said it would appeal the decision, but a ruling by the General Court of Luxembourg, the second-highest European court, could take several years, so it would have to pay the fine and comply with EU orders.
The fine imposed on Apple coincided with a 3.2 percent drop in the value of its shares to $173.88 on Monday afternoon. The fine was approximately four times the amount previously expected, making the news quite shocking.
Apple criticized the decision, saying it was “reached despite the Commission’s failure to uncover any credible evidence of consumer harm, and ignores the realities of a thriving, competitive, and stable market.” The company added: “The main advocate of this decision and the biggest beneficiary is Spotify, a company based in Stockholm, Sweden. “Spotify has the largest music streaming app in the world, and met with the European Commission more than 65 times during this investigation.”
It is noteworthy that European Union laws had recently imposed on Apple to open the way for application stores and alternative payment services in the countries of the Union. While the company complied with the new rules, it imposed huge commission rates that make moving to stores or external payment services illogical or beneficial for most developers, especially since leaving the App Store means not being able to return to it in the future.
