Spotify files complaint against Apple over ‘unfair’ App Store rules

Music streaming service Spotify has filed a complaint against Apple with the European Commission over App Store rules that give Apple an “unfair advantage at every turn,” the company CEO Daniel Ek announced in a blog post Wednesday.

In the post, Ek claims that Apple’s App Store rules make it hard for Spotify to compete with Apple’s own Apple Music on a level playing field.

“Apple requires that Spotify and other digital services pay a 30% tax on purchases made through Apple’s payment system, including upgrading from our Free to our Premium service. If we pay this tax, it would force us to artificially inflate the price of our Premium membership well above the price of Apple Music,” writes Ek. 

The 30% cut Ek’s referring to is commonly known as “Apple tax,” and Apple has been sued over it before. But this is the first time someone has publicly filed a complaint over it to the European Commission. 

The alternative, Ek claims, isn’t much better. “…If we choose not to use Apple’s payment system, forgoing the charge, Apple then applies a series of technical and experience-limiting restrictions on Spotify,” he writes. These include the inability to carry out proper customer support and being locked out of Apple services such as Siri, HomePod and Apple Watch. 

Ek says the company had tried — and failed — to resolve these issues with Apple before filing a complaint to the EC. 

The European Commission will surely take this complaint seriously. The regulator has imposed heavy fines on Qualcomm for paying Apple to use its chips exclusively, as well as Google for breaching antitrust rules to establish its search engine’s dominance on Android devices.

Spotify has launched a website to promote this cause, which Ek claims is about more than Spotify itself. Dubbed “Time to Play Fair,” it lists “facts” about Apple’s anti-competitive behavior and hosts a video that explains Spotify’s position on the matter.