Spotify criticizes Apple's tax for external purchases and appeals to the EU

2024-01-17 21:42:16

O Spotify reacted negatively to the new rules of App Store that allow developers to place a link to external purchases within apps hosted in the store. For representatives of the music service, it is “outrageous” that the company imposes a fee for purchases made using external methods.

The statement was made in an official statement a few hours after the change in App Store guidelines was released — the result of the end of the legal battle between Apple and Epic Games. Because the United States Supreme Court declined to rehear the case, neither company can now appeal the outcome.

As we reported, to comply with the court order, Maçã now allows developers to inform and direct users to payment pages outside the application in the United States, but will charge a commission of up to 27% in every transaction carried out through this modality — which is almost the fee charged for internal purchases, 30% (for some developers).

“Once again, Apple has demonstrated that it will not give up on protecting the profits it makes at the expense of developers and consumers under its App Store monopoly,” says the Spotify statement, which highlights that Apple’s attitude is in line with company actions in countries such as South Korea and the Netherlands to “circumvent” similar determinations.

Spotify, however, believes that the Digital Markets Act (Digital Markets Act, or DMA) of the European Union will put an end to this “false stance” by Apple — which would be a recreation of the company’s fees. It is worth remembering that the European Commission pointed out, at the beginning of last year, that Apple violated antitrust rules by not allowing purchases to be made without using the App Store payment system.

Although a final decision by the body could free the company (and many others) from paying the fee, as it is not a hardware specification (as the USB-C entry occurred), a possible determination by the EU would only be valid for countries in the EU. block — although it could generate a chain reaction in other countries.

Check out Spotify’s full statement, released by 9to5Mac:

Once again, Apple has demonstrated that it will not give up on protecting the profits it makes at the expense of developers and consumers under its App Store monopoly. Its latest move in the US — imposing a 27% fee on transactions made outside of an app on a developer’s website — is outrageous and flies in the face of the court’s efforts to allow greater competition and user choice. This action follows similar initiatives by Apple to circumvent regulations in South Korea and the Netherlands. However, the EU’s Digital Markets Act (DMA) will finally put an end to this false stance, which is essentially a recreation of Apple’s fees. We strongly urge the European Commission to act quickly and decisively to stop Apple from implementing similar fees, which are prohibited by the DMA.

We remember that, even though the result of the fight between Apple and Epic was discouraging for many developers, Spotify could benefit in one specific point: now developers can communicate with customers about payments outside the App Store by external means — such as email and text messaging — without the need to pay any fees.

Last year, Spotify was penalized by Apple for adding an option for users to request information by email about how to purchase audiobooks — which was seen by Maçã as a violation of its store’s policies.