Apple is once again in the crosshairs of Spotify and seven other companies who believe that its App Store practices are anti-competitive.
Spotify has never been shy about calling out Apple’s practices and it’s at the forefront of a new open letter sent to European regulators in which it asks for the company to be brought to task over the App Store and what it believes is behavior that stifles innovation.
A red letter day
In the open letter, which Spotify has published on its website, the music streamer alleges that Apple “has imposed unfair restrictions.” It goes on to say that those restrictions not only prevent it from launching products but also harm users.
Those restrictions “include the tying of the App Store to Apple’s proprietary payment system, with its excessive commissions for app developers” as well as “the creation of artificial obstacles that prevent our businesses from freely communicating with our customers.” The letter goes on, saying that Apple applies “restrictions to developers’ access to data of their own users” while also making “capricious changes to terms and conditions.”
All of that, Spotify and a group including Deezer and Basecamp say, means that “the time has come for urgent action from the EU to end Apple’s abusive behaviors.”
Like many other developers, Spotify has plenty of reason to be upset about Apple’s rules. Late last year we reported that its iPhone app was repeatedly rejected from the App Store over the inclusion of audiobooks and Spotify’s method of selling them.
This latest App Store spat comes in the same week Apple announced some of its best Macs ever, and the company would surely have preferred the narrative hadn’t so quickly turned against it once more.
