Apple sued in EU because other music services are too expensive | Infinium-tech
Apple faces a class-action lawsuit in four European countries, filed by Euroconsumers – one of the largest consumer advocacy groups in the EU. According to the filings, Apple is responsible for music streaming services such as Spotify and YouTube Music becoming more expensive.
The lawsuit alleged that companies were required to pay a 30% fee to appear on the App Store, and that they passed the cost on to their customers to cut their losses.
Euroconsumers said each iOS customer must pay up to €3 extra to make up for lost revenue. According to the group, Apple “made an unfair profit by overcharging consumers through its non-Apple Music services.” The lawsuit seeks to recover overpaid money for “more than 500,000 victims in Belgium, Italy, Spain and Portugal.”
Apple Music doesn’t pay a 30% service fee, but it should be noted that other companies don’t even need to raise fees to operate there. They’re simply passing on the cost, but they still claim Apple takes more than it actually does.
Following changes to the App Store’s payment structure by Apple, the US company now takes only 15% for each new subscription, which continues for the first year, while Spotify previously claimed to charge 30%.
The full list of platforms affected includes Spotify, Deezer, YouTube Music, SoundCloud, Amazon Music, Tidal, and Qobuz.
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