EU Regulators Accuse Apple Of Breaking Competition Rules In Dispute With Spotify

European Commission regulators sided with Spotify, accusing Apple of breaking EU competition law and abusing its monopoly over how music streaming apps are distributed through its app store.

This preliminary finding by EU officials means Apple has 12 weeks to formally respond. If the tech giant doesn’t satisfy regulators, the Associated Press said the company could be fined up to 10% of its annual revenue. Since Apple reported a revenue of US$274.5 billion (~RM1.1 trillion) in its latest financial year, it could be liable to pay a fine of up to US$27.4 billion (~RM112.2 billion).

EU launched an antitrust probe into the Apple App Store based on a 2019 complaint lodged by Spotify, CNBC said. Apple forces app developers to pay a 30% commission on all subscription fees that come through the App Store. It also prevents developers from informing users of alternative (and cheaper) ways to pay for subscriptions without going through the App Store.

Regulators zeroed in on both these practices as their key concerns.

Unsurprisingly, Apple lambasted the EU’s position as the “opposite of fair competition.”

“Spotify has become the largest music subscription service in the world, and we’re proud of the role we played in that,” Apple said, according to CNBC. “Once again, they want all the benefits of the App Store but don’t think they should have to pay anything for that.”

Spotify naturally applauded the stance of EU regulators. Relatedly, Epic Games has also filed an antitrust complaint against Apple in the EU, in addition to suing the latter in the US.

Twitter Considering Special Rules For Politicians; Has A Public Survey Underway

The banning of Donald Trump from Twitter made it evident that its general rules don’t quite apply to politicians in the same way. The social media company says it has been reviewing its policies for politicians. And now, the company is reaching out to the general public for opinions.

In its blog post, Twitter says it wants to hear from its users “whether or not they believe world leaders should be subject to the same rules as others”. Also part of its public survey is if politician rule violators should face the same punishment.

Of course, Twitter will be consulting more than just the general public. The company says that it is currently “consulting human rights experts, civil society organisations and academics”.

But back to the public survey, it looks like Twitter will be taking input from the public for just short of a month. The company says it will be taking responses starting today, 19 March, all the way until 12 April. The questionnaire will be available in 14 languages, which are Arabic, Chinese, English, Farsi, French, Hindi, Indonesian, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish, Tagalog, and Urdu.

Ultimately, it’s not something that will impact most users directly. Though it may be something you want to take part in if you want to have a say as to what happens to (mostly) US politicians when they tweet.

Chinese Tech Companies Are Trying To Circumvent New Apple Privacy Rules

Apple has some major privacy changes coming to devices running iOS 14. One of the major opponents of the move is Facebook, which has openly attacked the changes. But rather than having a public spat in a similar manner, Chinese tech giants may have a different idea.

According to a report by the Financial Times, state-backed China Advertising Association (CAA) is testing a tool to bypass the new Apple privacy rules. This will then allow companies to continue tracking users without their consent. In turn, this allows the companies to continue serving targeted ads.

The tool is known as CAID, and it’s being touted as “a substitute if the user’s IDFA is unavailable”. Though the CAA claims that the CAID is both not yet formally implemented, and “does not stand in opposition to Apple’s privacy policy”. The association goes on to say that it’s “actively communicating” with Apple regarding the matter.

The CAID has been reportedly in a free demo phase for select companies for a few months. It is even set to be released as soon as this week. Sources to the Financial Times claim that Tencent and ByteDance are currently testing the system. Apple, on the other hand, is aware of the tool and seems to have turned a blind eye so far. Though if it wanted, the company could detect which app uses the tool, and block them from the Chinese App Store.

So what’s stopping the company from actually doing so? The report quotes Zach Edwards, founder of tech consultancy agency Victory Medium, as saying that Apple can’t afford to ban every app in the country. Doing so will ultimately get it kicked out of the market.

China Rolls Out New Anti-Monopoly Rules For Tech Giants

China has issued new anti-monopoly guidelines that will apply to the country’s tech giants, the BBC reported. In recent months, Beijing has been scrutinising industry players that it believes have grown too powerful. Among those affected by the new rules are e-commerce platforms Alibaba and JD.com as well as fintech outfits Ant Group and Tencent’s WeChat Pay.

China’s State Administration for Market Regulation (SAMR) announced the new rules, which target price-fixing, predatory pricing, and unreasonable trading conditions.

For example, e-commerce platforms are now banned from forcing vendors to deal exclusively with them. The rules also prohibit companies from restricting technologies and using data and algorithms to manipulate the market.

SAMR said reports of anti-competitive behaviour were on the rise, and industry regulation was challenging. “The behaviour is more concealed, the use of data, algorithms, platform rules and so on make it more difficult to discover and determine what are monopoly agreements,” the regulatory body said, according to the BBC.

Though rules signify China’s growing determination to take on its big tech, their immediate impact on the market might not amount to much.

“The regulation, you know, is starting with a very good intention,” Hao Hong, managing director and head of research at Bank of Communications International, told CNBC’s “Street Signs Asia”. “The actual fact is that … the market position … of these big internet platforms are very difficult to encroach for now.”

In other words, China’s big tech may have gotten too big to be shrunk. Then again, Beijing is attacking on multiple fronts. Jack Ma-founded Alibaba is still being investigated for monopolistic practices. We’ll have to see how much the company and the broader industry can actually take.