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Apple Reportedly Faces Further EU Antitrust Charges Following a Complaint From Spotify

This comes a year after the EU accused Apple of breaching competition law in the music streaming market.

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Alexandra Garrett Associate Editor
Alexandra is an associate editor on CNET's Performance Optimization team. She graduated from Marymount Manhattan College in New York City, and interned with CNET's Tech and News teams while in school. Prior to joining CNET full time, Alexandra was a breaking news fellow at Newsweek, where she covered current events and politics.
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Illustration of the Apple logo on a smartphone screen against an EU flag.

The EU has its eye on how Apple conducts itself in the music streaming business.

 Photo Illustration by Omar Marques/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images

Apple will facing additional antitrust charges from the European Commission in the coming weeks, according to a Monday report from Reuters. This is said to come due to a music streaming investigation triggered by a complaint from Spotify. 

The extra charges come a year after the EU accused Apple of breaching competition law in the music streaming market through restrictive App Store rules. 

At the time, the EU's accusation outlined concerns from a 2019 complaint made by Spotify regarding Apple's policy for managing in-app payments. The complaint addressed how Apple charges Spotify and other subscription-based companies a 30% fee for in-app purchases, which, Spotify argued, was stifling competition for companies that compete with Apple Music. 

The commission now intends to set out extra antitrust charges in a supplementary statement of objections, according to Reuters, something that's normally issued when an EU competition enforcer has changed a portion of its case or found new evidence. 

Apple didn't immediately respond to a request for comment. 

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