Spotify Slams Apple's Compliance With EU Regulation As A Farce

Spotify criticized Apple's recently announced strategy to comply with the European Union's Digital Markets Act (DMA), deeming it "a complete and total farce." The new plan, set to take effect in early March, allows developers to introduce alternative app stores on iPhones and opt out of utilizing Apple's in-app payment system, which imposes commissions of up to 30%, as per the bloc's updated regulations.

Despite these apparent concessions, Apple's new EU regime still mandates developers to pay a "core technology fee" of 50 euro cents per user account annually. Expressing dissatisfaction with Apple's approach, Spotify, a major player in the music streaming industry, commented on Friday, "From the beginning, Apple has been clear that they didn't like the idea of abiding by the DMA. So they've formulated an undesirable alternative to the status quo."

Under the revised terms, Spotify highlighted that it would incur a 17% commission if it chooses to remain in the App Store and implement its own in-app payment system. Apple, in response, asserted that developers have the option to retain the existing terms, and under the new arrangement, more than 99% of developers would pay the same or less to Apple, as stated in an emailed statement to Reuters.

The stakes are high for Apple, as the bloc's industry chief disclosed to Reuters on Friday that the tech giant could face significant consequences if the alterations to its App Store fail to align with the forthcoming regulations.