The European Commission could send the statement of
objections setting out suspected violations of the bloc's antitrust rules to
Apple before the summer, one of the people said.
The case is one of four opened by the EU competition
enforcer against Apple in June last year. The EU charge sheet usually indicates
whether a fine is merited and what companies have to do to halt
anti-competitive practices.
The Commission declined to comment.
Apple referred to its March 2019 blog which said its App
Store helped Spotify to benefit from hundreds of millions of app downloads to
become Europe's largest music streaming service.
Spotify in its 2019 complaint to the Commission said Apple
unfairly restricts rivals to its own music steaming service Apple Music and
also protested against the 30 per cent fee levied on app developers to use
Apple's in-app purchase system (IAP).
In addition to the Spotify case, the Commission is also
investigating Apple's App Stores rules for all competing apps, for e-books and
audio books as well as its terms and conditions for its mobile payment service
Apple Pay.
The UK competition watchdog on Thursday opened an
investigation into Apple's practices while the Dutch agency is close to a
decision on its own case.
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