Swedish music streaming giant Spotify says it has filed a complaint with the EU Commission against Apple, accusing its US rival of stifling competition in the online music market.
“In recent years, Apple has introduced rules to the App Store that purposely limit choice and stifle innovation at the expense of the user experience essentially acting as both a player and referee to deliberately disadvantage other app developers,” Spotify said in a statement.
Spotify claims that Apple’s control of its App store deprived consumers of choice and rival providers of audio streaming services to the benefit of Apple Music, which began in 2015.
Central to Spotify’s complaint, filed to the European Commission on Monday, is what it says is a 30 percent fee Apple charges content-based service providers to use Apple’s in-app purchase system (IAP).
Horacio Gutierrez, Spotify’s general counsel, said the company was pressured into using the billing system in 2014,…
