European regulators are reportedly set to slap Apple Inc. with a fine of more than $500 million, citing unfair practices that hindered its music-streaming rivals.
Antitrust Violation
The Financial Times and Bloomberg News reported Sunday that European Commission antitrust regulators are preparing to impose a roughly $500 million euro ($539 million) fine against Apple AAPL, after finding that it created an anticompetitive environment by failing to inform iPhone users that cheaper, alternative music-streaming apps were available outside its App Store.
Investigation Origin
The investigation stemmed from a complaint filed by Spotify SA SPOT in 2019. While large antitrust fines have been previously imposed on Big Tech companies like Google’s Alphabet GOOGL and Microsoft Corp. MSFT, this would mark the first antitrust fine against Apple in the EU.
What's Next?
The fine is expected to be announced in early March, as reported by FT. Apple has not made a comment on this development yet, reiterating their stance that "The App Store has helped Spotify become the top music streaming service across Europe and we hope the European Commission will end its pursuit of a complaint that has no merit."
Additional Investigation
In parallel news, the European Commission is reportedly on the brink of accepting a settlement from Apple in a separate antitrust case concerning its Apple Pay system.
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