Spotify moves to kick Apple while its down following $2 billion App Store fine

Spotify is preparing to take full advantage of the European Commission's (EC) recent ruling against Apple that claims the company is "abusing its dominant position" in the music streaming app distribution business.

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The ruling by the EC featured a massive fine of €1.84 billion (about $2 billion) for Apple and claimed the iOS developer has anti-steering rules within its App Store that prevent developers from informing users about alternative and cheaper subscription services outside of the app. According to European Commission's competition head Margrethe Vestager, Apple's guidelines are a violation of EU law, and the practice is "illegal".

In a nutshell, the EC claims Apple's guidelines to developers prevent services such as Spotify from informing its users about cheaper or even alternative pricing for subscriptions from outside of the iOS app, which is a tactic to get users to checkout through the App Store where Apple takes a 30% cut of all purchases. The EC has ordered Apple to lift its strict rules for developers and "allow music streaming developers to communicate freely with their own users," which would look like app developers providing pricing information to users within apps.

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Apple is planning to appeal the decision and has accused Spotify of wanting to "rewrite the rules of the App Store" since this whole debacle started when Spotify wrote a complaint to the EC back in 2019.

Now, Spotify is looking to take full advantage of this decision by telling The Verge that if Apple approves the updated policy change, it will roll out pricing information for iOS users in the European Union.

"Spotify is taking full advantage of this ruling. If Apple approves the change, Spotify will be able to provide iOS users in the EU with information about the prices of its Premium subscriptions as well as the different features they offer. It will also include links that point users to its website to buy the subscriptions they want. You can see how this will look in the image included above," writes The Verge