Apple Stymying Competition by Blocking App Update, Says Spotify
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Spotify has accused Apple of blocking an update to the Swedish company’s music streaming app in order to push customers towards its own competing service, according to a person familiar with the dispute.
Apple rejected the update after Spotify started encouraging customers to subscribe online rather than through the iOS mobile operating system, the person said, citing a letter that Spotify General Counsel Horacio Gutierrez sent to counterpart Bruce Sewell on June 26. By encouraging users to sign up through the website, Spotify is seeking to avoid paying the 30% cut on the monthly subscriptions that are billed through iOS. Recode reported about the letter earlier Thursday.
Spotify had managed to avoid diluting its income by charging iOS subscribers $13 per month rather than the $10 it charges its other customers. But that made it a more expensive choice when Apple introduced its own $10-per-month music streaming service in June 2015. Apple has since attracted 15 million paying subscribers, compared with the 30 million that Spotify said it had in March.
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