The Case Against Apple

Apple has become one of the world's leading companies in the market today. Recently, Spotify is suing Apple as it states that Apple is violating the law. The tension centers around Apple not featuring Spotify features on their devices.
Image result for spotify apple
Apple taxes 30% of users' subscription fees for the first year and 15% of fees after that. In other words, Apple takes a big chunk of revenue and limits the profit not only Spotify makes but other firms as well. In addition, Apple limits access to Spotify on Apple devices. With the increasing demand for Apple products, it can diminish the value of Spotify as apple users aren’t able to fully use its Spotify features to its full advantage.
 
Spotify would state,
 
“Every monopolist will suggest they have done nothing wrong and will argue that they have the best interests of competitors and consumers at heart. In that way, Apple’s response to our complaint before the European Commission is not new and is entirely in line with our expectations.
We filed our complaint because Apple’s actions hurt competition and consumers, and are in clear violation of the law. This is evident in Apple’s belief that Spotify’s users on iOS are Apple customers and not Spotify customers, which goes to the very heart of the issue with Apple. We respect the process the European Commission must now undertake to conduct its review.”
Just like the case against Google, Apple seems to limit competitors and take advantage of their monopolist position.  
Sources:

Comments

  1. AnonymousApril 9, 2019 at 1:42 PM

    Super interesting post! You make a really good point that Apple's actions are seemingly hurting competition by strong arming their monopolist capabilities. However, it also prompted me to think about another question: to what extent should companies be able to use their own products to promote their other services? While it may potentially decrease the cashflow to some competitor companies, if users are choosing to use Apple products instead of other competitor brands, shouldn't Apple be able to use their product's platform to promote their other services? Just some food for thought.

    https://9to5mac.com/2019/04/09/spotify-losing-artists-apple-music/

    ReplyDelete

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