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EU research on antitrust is underway

The European Union today is moving forward with its lawsuit against Apple, saying it could enter violation of EU law. Competition director Margrethe Vestager said his team believes there is enough evidence to unlock the maker of the iPhone. In a tweet, Vestager said Apple Music “competes [sic] and other music search services, but Apple pays a lot of money to competitors in the App Store and prohibits them from announcing other subscription options. ”

The Commission published its own Criticism Comment to Apple, claiming that its regulations “disrupt competition in the market” by “raising the price against music.” He says doing so could be seen as a violation of Article 102 of the EU Agreement, which prohibits “cruelty to the stock market.”

This conflict with the EU began in 2019, when Spotify complained to EU about how Apple runs the App Store. The Swedish giant claims that Apple has not played fairly with its competitors, financially and professionally. In an open letter, Spotify CEO Daniel Ek said Apple acted as “a player and a critic to deliberately disrupt other software developers.”

It imposed a fine that the iPhone manufacturer paid Spotify 30% Commission on in-app purchases, which made it less competitive in search engines, with its sharp features. Ek said in order to use the system, Spotify must raise its price, to make it look unattractive. Similarly, the fact that an immovable audio player could not be classified as a third party, and had fewer sales opportunities like the Apple Watch and HomePod, it said, gave Apple Music a more unfair advantage than its counterpart.

Apple and Google both have limitations as far as companies can provide experiences to users, and Apple prohibits manufacturers from encouraging “users to use an alternative to purchase in-app purchases.” This is something that Epic Games found to be so frustrating that it only added to the debt Four men on iOS and Android in opposition. This, in violation of the App Store and Google Play rules, saw the app removed from all over, which made Epic want acceptable methods.

Here it is “anti-steering“which the EU has taken care of, claiming that Apple is restricting the ability of manufacturers” to inform consumers of such purchases, which are relatively inexpensive. “The results of this study, which only focus on anti-regulatory and competitive 30% cut, should take a long time to complete.

For its part, Apple has repeatedly said that the fees it charges on the App Store are only for repairing its devices, and that the rules are in place for everyone’s safety. Mu words produced at the time, the company said “Spotify seeks to preserve all the best features of the App Store environment […] not giving anything to the market. It also said that Spotify should share[s] your favorite songs when you give small contributions to artists, musicians and songwriters who make. “

In short, Apple cuts 30% off all sales made in the App Store, with a few exceptions. “Few” producers who earn less than $ 1 million a year in the market pay only 15 percent, with a single high payout only once. Similarly, subscription fees pay a 30% fee in the first year, which drops to 15% for each subsequent year. There are also a few minor issues, and 9to5Mac citing Amazon and Uber as two examples of companies that are not responsible for the deal.

Apple CEO Tim Cook is protected the division of funds, saying that it is common in the industry and that several other platforms do the same. Steam and Google, for example, both do, though, in the face of Apple’s critics, that Valve or Google cannot prevent people from buying and installing apps from other devices on PC / Mac or Android. Epic Games, meanwhile, itself on the PC anti-Steam platform, costs 12%. Microsoft, which also received a 30% reduction, announced Thursday that it would reduce its revenue by 12%, at least on PC games.

Several other companies have also added their support in support of Spotify’s claims that Apple has defrauded the producers of this. The list is there Tiles, You buy it and those mentioned Epic Games, as well as App Fairness Alliance, a group of companies that believe that “Apple imposes taxes on consumers and violates new ones,” promotes “freedom of choice and fair competition for software products.”

As with all EU research, this process will take several years, and even more so when considering various applications.

This big issue is growing, please continue to hear more.

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