Apple has been fined €500 million (about $539 million USD) by the European Union for stifling competition against Apple Music on the iPhone. The decision follows a complaint from Spotify in 2019 that Apple prevented apps from sharing cheaper alternatives to Apple Music that could be used on the iPhone. This would allow companies such as Spotify to sell users subscriptions to their service without having to account for Apple’s 30% fee on transactions. The EU ultimately focused its complaint on Apple’s decision to prevent developers from linking out to their own subscription options within their app. At one point, the fine being considered was 10% of Apple’s annual global income, which would have been close to $40 billion, so the $539 million dollar fine represents a much lower fee than the company might have had to pay in the case.
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