The European Commission is investigating whether tech giant Apple is guilty of abuse of power at its App Store.
In particular, the mandatory use of Apple’s payment system in that software store is being examined. The European competition watchdog is also looking at payment service Apple Pay.
At the App Store, software providers must make payments through the Apple system.
The tech giant then gets a share of that, usually 30 percent. Even if they sell subscriptions or, for example, offer the opportunity to purchase other items, such as e-books.
In addition, Apple forbids to link from its own app to, for example, a website where the same subscription or the same shop can be purchased without the iPhone maker getting its share.
The European Commission is taking this step after complaints from a provider of e-books and audiobooks and a complaint from Spotify.
That music streaming service complained that its subscriptions are now artificially expensive on Apple devices, while Apple has a competitive service with Apple Music. European Commissioner Margrethe Vestager wants to use the research to look at Apple’s role as a gatekeeper.
“We need to make sure that Apple’s rules don’t harm competition, especially in markets where Apple itself competes with other developers.”