EU to force Apple to allow music services to offer alternative subscription options
Apple is set to be hit by a ban on its App Store rules that govern music-streaming rivals, allowing Spotify and others to offer alternative subscription options within their apps.
Samuel Stolton for Bloomberg News:
EU regulators are putting the finishing touches to a decision that would prohibit Apple’s practice of blocking music services from pushing their users away from the App Store to alternative subscription options, according to people familiar with the investigation. The decision is slated for early next year, they added.
The probe was sparked by a complaint nearly four years ago from Sweden’s Spotify Technology SA, which claimed it was forced to ramp up the price of its monthly subscriptions to cover costs associated with Apple’s alleged stranglehold on how the App Store operates. The European Commission homed in on Apple’s anti-steering rules in a formal charge sheet in February, saying the conditions are unnecessary and mean customers may end up paying more.
The EU crackdown on App Store rules has run alongside another probe focused on how Cupertino, California-based Apple controls tap-to-pay technology on its devices. But the company is in talks to settle that case, according to people familiar with the investigation.
MacDailyNews Take: Again:
It’s Apple’s App Store. Of course they have a right to charge commissions.
Apple’s App Store isn’t a charity and it’s not free to operate. – MacDailyNews, November 14, 2022
How much did it cost developers to have their apps burned onto CDs, boxed, shipped, displayed on store shelves prior to Apple remaking the world for the better for umpteenth time? Apple incurs costs to store, review, organize, surface, and distribute apps to over one billion users. — MacDailyNews, June 10, 2022
That said, as we wrote last year:
Those who want safety, security, and privacy will stick to Apple’s App Store, but a single point of control is always a danger, especially when it comes to capricious censorship (see: pre-Musk Twitter, Apple’s App Store in China, etc.).
iPhone and iPad users must, like Mac users, have the ability to install third-party apps; even if they never do, for it will keep Apple honest. The ability to ban an app loses all power when it’s simply available in another App Store.
These moves, including removing the mandate to use WebKit, Apple’s Safari browsing engine, in third-party browsers, will greatly reduce, if not eliminate, the threat of anti-trust actions against Apple for the foreseeable future.
Also, expect Gatekeeper to come to iOS and iPadOS from macOS.
Yes, Apple’s App Store revenue will take a hit, but there are new products for new markets on deck (AR/VR headsets, AR glasses, Apple Car, etc.) that will more than make up for any loss of App Store exclusivity.
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