Apple gets fined nearly $2 billion by the EU for hindering music-streaming competition

LONDON

The European Union leveled its first antitrust penalty against Apple on Monday, fining the U.S. tech giant nearly $2 billion for unfairly favoring its own music-streaming service by forbidding rivals such as Spotify from telling users how they could pay for cheaper subscriptions outside of iPhone apps.

Apple muzzled streaming services from telling users about payment options available through their websites to avoid the 30% fee charged when people pay through apps downloaded with the iOS App Store, said the European Commission, the 27-nation bloc’s executive arm and top antitrust enforcer.

“This is illegal. And it has impacted millions of European consumers who were not able to make a free choice as to where, how and at what price to buy music-streaming subscriptions,” Margrethe Vestager, the EU’s competition commissioner, said at a news conference in Brussels.

Apple behaved this way for a decade, resulting in “millions of people who have paid two, three euros more per month for their music-streaming service than they would otherwise have had to pay,” she said.

APPLE RESPONDS

It’s the culmination of a bitter, yearslong feud between Apple and Spotify over music-streaming supremacy. A complaint from the Swedish streaming service five years ago triggered the investigation that led to the 1.8 billioneuro ($1.95 billion) fine.

Apple hit back at the commission, saying it would appeal Monday’s fine.

“The decision was reached despite the Commission’s failure to uncover any credible evidence of consumer harm, and ignores the realities of a market that is thriving, competitive, and growing fast,” the company said in a statement.