US court asks Spotify for more information on prosecution against Apple

Time may have passed, but the dust between the Apple it’s the Spotify didn’t go down. As we reported, at the beginning of the year the streaming Sweden has publicly complained about unequal and restrictive rules in the Apple system, encouraging several other companies to accuse the Cupertino giant of a monopoly.

Behold, about six months after the start of the imbroglio, the justice of the United States asked Spotify for more information to support these accusations, according to a new report by Reuters.

The Judicial Committee of the US House of Representatives has contacted the service of streaming of music with extensive requests for information, according to a source, who added that the request to the company consisted of follow-up phone calls [do processo].

In addition to the monopoly charge, Spotify emphasized the fact that Apple retains 30% of the value of just a few purchases on the App Store, calling it a “discriminatory tax”. Apple explained that it charges a commission for in-app purchases linked to digital products; therefore, apps that provide “real” goods and services (like Uber, for example) are exempt.

For these and other reasons, Apple claims that Spotify’s complaint is nothing more than “misleading rhetoric” and claimed that competing Apple Music service “wants all the benefits of a free app without being one”. In addition, the company clarified that Spotify pays a 15% commission for only 0.5% of its subscribers.

As we said, this is not the only case involving Apple in anti-competitive practices; the company is currently involved in six other antitrust lawsuits in several regions, including South Korea, Europe, Russia and the USA – where the Supreme Court “authorized” users to sue the company for a monopoly.


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via MacRumors