Spotify Says Apple Won't Approve New Version Of Its App Because It Doesn't Want Competition For Apple Music (recode.net)

According to a report on Recode, Apple has rejected an update to Spotify's iOS app, and that this has caused a "grave harm to Spotify and its customers." The Swedish-based music company competes with Apple's Music streaming app and service. In a letter to Apple's top lawyer, Spotify says that Apple turned down a version of the app citing "business model rules" and demanded that Spotify uses Apple's billing system if it wants to acquire new customers and sell subscriptions. From the report:The letter, sent by Spotify general counsel Horacio Gutierrez to Apple general counsel Bruce Sewell on May 26, suggests that Spotify intends to use the standoff as ammunition in its fight over Apple's rules governing subscription services that use its App store. "This latest episode raises serious concerns under both U.S. and EU competition law," Gutierrez wrote. "It continues a troubling pattern of behavior by Apple to exclude and diminish the competitiveness of Spotify on iOS and as a rival to Apple Music, particularly when seen against the backdrop of Apple's previous anticompetitive conduct aimed at Spotify ... we cannot stand by as Apple uses the App Store approval process as a weapon to harm competitors."

Comments

Re:This is why android

[tw2k]

Nope, I don't understand. Specifically I don't really understand what the dispute is actually about or what has changed. Apple have always said if you offer subscription in app then you use Apple's purchasing systems and "Apps may not include buttons, external links, or other calls to action that direct customers to purchasing mechanisms other than IAP".

TFA says they were running 'promotions' to get people to sign up by other means so that's not allowed and never has been, then says "Spotify stopped advertising the promotion. But it also turned off its App Store billing option, which has led to the current dispute.", is the claim that they are trying to publish an app that doesn't offer in app purchases and doesn't direct people elsewhere and Apple are rejecting it? That seems unlikely and doesn't fit in with the quoted response from Apple. The summary here doesn't even make any attempt to present any facts about the dispute.

This crappy hate piece seems to imply Apple are moving the goalposts and picking on Spotify because they compete in the same space. Whereas it seems like the truth is that Spotify decided to break the rules that have been in place for about 5 years - 3 years before they purchased the Beats music service that became Apple Music.

You can like or dislike the walled garden approach where Apple sets the rules for its.store. Feel free for hate them for the way they indiscriminately apply commission to all in-app purchases and make it difficult for you to get the revenue by other means. But lets not pretend they are picking on Spotify specifically or that anything has changed, except that Spotify decided it no longer wanted to play by the same rules it signed up to several years ago.