BRUSSELS (Reuters) – Apple’s iPhone maker could face a trust cost page in the coming weeks following a 2019 complaint with music streaming service Spotify, two people familiar with the matter said.
The cost could alter Apple’s lucrative business model, they said.
The European Commission could have issued the statement of objection outlining suspicions that anti-trust rules were blocked to Apple before the summer, one of the people said.
The case is one of four opened by EU competition enforcer into Apple in June last year. The EU cost page usually shows if a fine is eligible and what companies need to do to stop anti-competitive practices.
The Commission declined to comment.
Apple was not immediately available for comment. They have said that their App Store helped Spotify to take advantage of hundreds of millions of app downloads to become the largest music streaming service in Europe.
Spotify said in its 2019 complaint to the Commission that Apple is unfairly restricting competitors to their own music music service Apple Music and also protesting against the 30% levy imposed. build on app developers to use Apple’s in-app purchasing system (IAP).
Reporting by Foo Yun Chee, edited by Sabine Siebold and Susan Fenton