The European Commission plans to impose a fine of 500 million euros on Apple for violating competition rules in the music streaming services sector. This is the result of an antitrust investigation that examined whether the company favored its own services at the expense of competition.
Free access to this article is provided to you by MU Group.
In response to a complaint filed by Spotify in 2019, the European Commission has launched an antitrust investigation against Apple. Its aim was to determine whether the giant from Cupertino deliberately blocked iPhone users from being informed about the availability of alternative music streaming apps outside the App Store.
According to unofficial information obtained by the Financial Times, the European Commission found that "Apple's actions are illegal and contrary to the principles of the European community, which enforce competition in the single market".
As a penalty, the company will most likely have to pay a fine of up to 500 million euros. The official decision of the European Commission is to be announced in early March.
The above fine may be one of the most significant financial penalties imposed by the EU on large technology corporations. Google has also found itself in a similar situation in the past, on which a series of fines totaling 8 billion euros were imposed, but they are currently being reviewed by the court.
Apple itself has never been penalized by Brussels for antitrust violations before. However, in 2020, the company was fined 1.1 billion euros in France for alleged anti-competitive behavior, but it was ultimately reduced to 372 million euros on appeal.
According to the Financial Times, the EU's latest actions against Apple could exacerbate relations between state institutions and large technology companies. This is because corporations are required to demonstrate that they comply with new regulations aimed at promoting competition and enabling the development of smaller entities in the technology sector.
As part of a separate antitrust investigation, the EU is also consulting with Apple's competitors about potential compromises from the technology giant. These actions are aimed at dispelling fears that Apple may limit financial companies' access to its mobile payment system - Apple Pay.
Karina Orzechowska
In 2023 alone, over 84,000 cases of fraud were recorded, resulting in losses of a record 277 million dollars.
The Trends & Salaries Report 2024 developed by ManpowerGroup presents predictions regarding phenomena that will dominate the labor market in the coming year. They cover a wide range of topics from the professional activation of women, through the impact of Generation Z on organizational culture, to the progress of AI.
As the only company in the world, it is able to produce processors in the most advanced 3 nm technology. In addition, it owns the most expensive factory ever built, and its clients are Apple, NVIDIA and Intel. How did it happen that Taiwanese TSMC became one of the most important companies in the world?
The reduction in the number of employees is directly related to the increasing popularity of generative AI assistants from companies such as Microsoft, AWS, Google, and IBM, as shown by a study conducted by Cornell University.
English