BRUSSELLS, (CelebrityAccess) — The European Union provided an update in its anti-trust case against Apple, suggesting that they support the views of complainant Spotify that Apple abused the prevalence of its app store to gain market power over rivals but limiting the scope of their investigation.
The Commission announced that it has sent a Statement of Objections to Apple, which outlined its preliminary view that the company abused its app store to impose its own in-app purchase payment technology on music streaming app developers and by restricting developers ability to inform IOS device users of alternatives to Apple’s own music streaming platform.
According to the Commission, they no longer pursuing Apple over the legality of in-app purchases but will instead focus their investigation on Apple’s contractual restrictions imposed on developers for in app purchases.
The Commission’s preliminary position is that Apple’s anti-steering obligations constitute unfair trading practices and are in breach of the European Union’s free trade laws.
As a result of the letter of opposition, Apple can examine the evidence which it based its preliminary ruling on and request an oral hearing to present their their case before representatives of the Commission and national competition authorities.
If the Commission determines that there is sufficient evidence of an infringement, they can impose a fine of up to 10% of Apple’s annual turnover, which last year amounted to more than $387 billion.
