Report: Apple to Receive €500 Million EU Fine Over Music Streaming Access

Apple is reportedly set to receive a hefty fine for breaching EU law regarding access to music streaming services. According to a report from the Financial Times citing five people with direct knowledge of the antitrust investigation, the EU Commission could announce the fine, which is estimated to reach around €500 million (around $539 million) early next month.

The EU antitrust probe, which was announced in 2021, came after Spotify filed a complaint against Apple with the European Commission back in 2019. At the time, the core of the company’s complaint revolved around Apple giving itself an unfair advantage over its competitors, which have to pay a 30 percent tax on purchases made through Apple’s payment system. Spotify also complained that Apple’s App Store policies were also preventing the company from linking to cheaper payment alternatives on iOS.

Last year, the EU Commission narrowed its investigations after allowing “reader apps” such as Netflix, Amazon Kindle, and Spotify to include a link to their websites, giving users to a way manage their accounts. Apple has never received an antitrust fine from the EU to this day. However, the French Competition Authority fined the company a record €1.1 billion in 2020 for anti-competitive practices with two distributors of its products. A French appeal court later slashed that fine to just €372 million.

“The Commission will say Apple’s actions are illegal and go against the bloc’s rules that enforce competition in the single market, the people familiar with the case told the Financial Times. It will ban Apple’s practice of blocking music services from letting users outside its App Store switch to cheaper alternatives,” the report reads.

Next month, Apple will release iOS 17.4, which will introduce big changes to the platform and the App Store to comply with the EU’s Digital Markets Act. Apple will add support for alternative payment processing services for App Store apps in the EU, and developers will also be able to distribute their apps on alternative app stores if they accept Apple’s new business terms for EU apps.

Spotify, Epic Games, and other companies have already criticized Apple for doing the bare minimum on iOS to ensure DMA compliance. However, these upcoming changes to iOS won’t be impacting the ongoing EU investigation. And Apple could still appeal the verdict from the Commission.

In a response to the Financial Times’ report, the company said 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.”