Spotify supports Epic Games' private antitrust action against Apple
Music streaming service Spotify on Thursday threw support behind Epic Games after the Fortnite developer leveled a lawsuit against Apple over allegedly monopolistic App Store regulations.
Spotify, which lodged its own antitrust complaint against Apple in 2019, welcomed Epic as an ally in a long-running fight over App Store fees.
The streaming service in a statement to Recode's Peter Kafka lauded Epic's decision to take legal action against the tech giant's tight control over iOS app distribution.
"We applaud Epic Games' decision to take a stand against Apple and shed further light on Apple's abuse of its dominant position," a Spotify spokesperson said. "Apple's unfair practices have disadvantaged competitors and deprived consumers for far too long. The stakes for consumers and app developers large and small couldn't be higher and ensuring that the iOS platform operates competitively and fairly is an urgent task with far-reaching implications."
On Thursday, Epic announced plans to skirt Apple's typical 30% cut of App Store transactions by implementing a direct payments system. As expected, the iPhone maker responded by pulling popular battle royale game Fortnite from the online marketplace, citing violation of App Store policy.
Epic in quick order fired off a prepared lawsuit against Apple in California court, asserting the Cupertino company is a "behemoth seeking to control markets, block competition and stifle innovation." App Store fees and Apple's restriction of outside app stores are key arguments in the lawsuit.
While private antitrust cases are difficult and costly to successfully navigate, they do shine a light on potentially nefarious practices and could prompt increased government scrutiny. To help bolster its cause, Epic has enlisted noted antitrust attorney Christine Varney, who served as U.S. Assistant Attorney General of the Antitrust Division under President Barack Obama.
Spotify, which lodged its own antitrust complaint against Apple in 2019, welcomed Epic as an ally in a long-running fight over App Store fees.
The streaming service in a statement to Recode's Peter Kafka lauded Epic's decision to take legal action against the tech giant's tight control over iOS app distribution.
"We applaud Epic Games' decision to take a stand against Apple and shed further light on Apple's abuse of its dominant position," a Spotify spokesperson said. "Apple's unfair practices have disadvantaged competitors and deprived consumers for far too long. The stakes for consumers and app developers large and small couldn't be higher and ensuring that the iOS platform operates competitively and fairly is an urgent task with far-reaching implications."
On Thursday, Epic announced plans to skirt Apple's typical 30% cut of App Store transactions by implementing a direct payments system. As expected, the iPhone maker responded by pulling popular battle royale game Fortnite from the online marketplace, citing violation of App Store policy.
Epic in quick order fired off a prepared lawsuit against Apple in California court, asserting the Cupertino company is a "behemoth seeking to control markets, block competition and stifle innovation." App Store fees and Apple's restriction of outside app stores are key arguments in the lawsuit.
While private antitrust cases are difficult and costly to successfully navigate, they do shine a light on potentially nefarious practices and could prompt increased government scrutiny. To help bolster its cause, Epic has enlisted noted antitrust attorney Christine Varney, who served as U.S. Assistant Attorney General of the Antitrust Division under President Barack Obama.
Comments
Hey Epic those rules have been in place at least 10 years. Why did you wait until now to pull this petty publicity stunt?
By the way, 30% is a normal markup on any product(actually it’s on the low side).
Apple created the ecosystem for their platform ... and all these spoiled developers who made millions/billion from that very same service and platform....are now forgetting how they got there.
Apple provided them and the the consumer a secure ecosystem through which both sides could comfortably and with peace of mind trade.
Providing and managing all that is not free for Apple... on top Apple is not a charity organization.. its a Buisness.
As for monoplistic behavior... how can one be a monopolist when they only hold 13% -16% of the market share in smartphones and mobile devices in units!?
Now if they held 95% market share like windows did.. its a very different story.
The consumer has a choice to go elase where.. actually aprox 85% do !
It is Apple‘s world and their own ecosys of their own creation.... u dont like it.. move on to the other options. There are plenty of options.
There is no Monopoly.
Epic will gather all the freeloading bums to protest against Apple.
Use the popularity of Beats and AirPods to influence users.
3rd party app stores only “work” on Android because they’re preinstalled and run by the same people making the Android device. Eg Samsung has its own store for their own devices. Other 3rd party stores do not enjoy any kind of penetration.
The idea of replicating the Desktop Steam or Epic store on iOS is completely naive: Apple run the hardware, even on desktop most of the Mac Steam catalogue became extinct after the switch to 64 bit, and more will follow this with the Apple Silicone switch. Apple don’t need to protect competitors like they do their own App Store developers, and emulators don’t work forever.
No matter how this goes, it doesn’t bode well for Epic or Spotify.
They didn't think this through. I don't wanna see them on stage again, pretty sure the crowd will boo them out.
Apple will most likely take gaming more seriously and try to take Epics grip on the world's favorite gaming engine.
Spotify and Epic customers can use their digital purchases on other devices so they’re losing anything.
If they do the antitrust feds will be on them like white on rice, I hope they take your advice.
It's very obvious Epic planned this.
Pulling the plug on all other products from Epic/Spotify in retaliation? Does that really sound like a good idea? You would literally only be strengthening the anti-trust lawsuits against Apple.
The answer to this is easy, it's being scrutinized by many parties. This is their way to form their own protest. There are digital stores that take less, anything between 10-15% of the sales, with everything over 5% often being profits. While brick and mortar stores tend to have 25-50% profit margins, there are some differences between these stores, including discussion if subscriptions warrant a cut even if the user only signed up on the platform but doesn't use platform for the service.