Apple is pushing back against Spotify's claim of unfair treatment in the App Store. The Cupertino company filed a response in an ongoing antitrust lawsuit case with the European Commission in which Spotify claimed Apple was charging it a 30% tax.
Quite to contrary says Apple according to German paper Der Spiegel, as Spotify does not pay that amount in tax, and in fact, only 680,000 (0.5%) of its customers pay the tax, and that'd be the lower 15% tax figure.
Apple has an in-app purchase tax for customers signing up for subscriptions. If they do it through the app, then companies like Spotify need to pay a 30% tax for the first year for those customers and then it drops to 15%. Spotify pulled out of the in-app purchase program back in 2016, which Apple claims is there reason that all Spotify customers who qualify for the in-app purchase program only pay 15%.
Apple and Spotify has been butting heads since the former jumped into the music streaming business with the launch of Apple Music in 2015. Seeing as Apple greatly benefits from pushing its own streaming platform, Spotify has taken umbrage to its business practices, such as imposing an additional tax on its customers and issues with app approval.
Spotify pointed out Apple rejected two Apple Watch app submissions back in 2015 and 2016 as an anti-competitive practice. As a result, Spotify still does not offer an Apple Watch app even with Apple adding a third-party API for music.
It doesn't sound like the tension between Apple and Spotify will end any time soon. Unfortunately for Spotify, it needs Apple's App Store to reach its customer base, which could continue to bring other issues between the two companies to the forefront.
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