Apple Allows Spotify to Show Pricing Info to EU Users in iPhone App

Spotify says it has received approval from Apple to display pricing information in its iOS app for users in the European Union, following its years-long legal struggle with the company.

Apple vs Spotify feature2
Spotify says that from Wednesday, iPhone users in the EU will be informed of pricing information in the app and the fact that they can go to the company's website to purchase items directly.

"EU iPhone consumers will now benefit from seeing our end of summer promotional pricing," said Spotify in an updated blog post. "They'll also finally be able to see how much a Premium plan of their choosing costs once the promotion ends."

The music streamer is not opting into Apple's complicated new business rules under the Digital Markets Act, but is instead taking advantage of Apple's "entitlement" for music streaming services – a result of the European Commission's decision on March 4 which found that Apple violated the EU's antitrust laws and fined them over €1.8 billion.

Spotify is still not giving users a link to click to make purchases from outside of the App Store, which it could have done under the entitlement terms, but it presumably does not want to give Apple a cut of any off-platform sales, which Apple would likely argue is a reflection of the value the App Store provides.

"Unfortunately, Spotify and all music streaming services in the EU are still not able to freely give consumers a simple opportunity to click a link to purchase in app because of the illegal and predatory taxes Apple continues to demand, despite the Commission's ruling.

"The fight continues. iPhone consumers everywhere deserve basic information about how much things cost, when they can take advantage of great deals and promotions, and where to go to buy those things online. If the European Commission properly enforces its decision, iPhone consumers could see even more wins, like lower cost payment options and better product experiences in the app."

Spotify has been in a legal spat with Apple in the EU since 2019, when it filed an antitrust complaint over App Store rules. As recently as March Spotify complained to the Commission that Apple was failing to approve a Spotify update that adds information on subscription pricing and links its website.

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Top Rated Comments

sehns Avatar
8 months ago
The 30% tax is incredibly hostile especially to apps that have a built in cost licensing they have to pay. We developed a therapy app and Apple made us pay the 30% despite real humans having to respond which also had to be paid. In the end after paying our therapists Apple made more profit than we did, so we killed the business.

The tax really only makes sense when its for software alone, not licensed content (netflix, kindle, spotify) or services (human labor/time)

We'd even be happy to use Apple Pay and cut them in for the merchant processing, but for many apps business models 30% is just egregious and unfair.

I bet many game developers pay so much on marketing/advertising that apple also makes more from their 30% than the devs do.
Score: 35 Votes (Like | Disagree)
sehns Avatar
8 months ago

Apple is not anti steering. They simply aren’t wanting corporations to use their access to customers to market their product.

Same way you don’t go into Wendy’s advertising McDonalds.
99.9% of apps have to go out and get their own customers. They have to market, pay for PR, run ads. Only a very small group of successful apps get free advertising from apple on the app store. It's not Apple that is bringing in the customer, it's the developer. The customer just happens to be using Apples platform. If you had your own app business, you'd understand. They have to invest all the work building the product, marketing the product, and Apple gets to freeload like a landlord. Often after all the expenses Apple typically makes more margin than the dev does. It would be like paying the IRS 30% tax off your gross business profit without being able to make any expense deductions. Absolutely absurd.
Score: 28 Votes (Like | Disagree)
MilaM Avatar
8 months ago
Apple will change, one huge fine at a time. But apparently it's still more profitable to drag this out. I'm wondering though if this kind of behavior will cost Apple even more credibility in the developer community. Only time will tell.
Score: 18 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Mrkevinfinnerty Avatar
8 months ago

Imagine if Microsoft told the world that everything running on Windows required a 30% fee from now on.
Imagine if they had told Apple in 2003 that they had to pay 30% cut of iTunes sales on Windows.
Score: 12 Votes (Like | Disagree)
neuropsychguy Avatar
8 months ago
"Spotify is still not able to let users click a lick to make purchases from outside the App Store"

Clicking a lick? Sounds moist. ;)

Edit: 3 hours later and the typo isn't fixed. I think it should be kept at this point.

2nd edit: Just for fun, got it archived ('https://web.archive.org/web/20240814141558/https://www.macrumors.com/2024/08/14/apple-allows-spotify-show-pricing-eu-app/'). ?
Score: 12 Votes (Like | Disagree)
atoqir Avatar
8 months ago
All these people defending Apple because they 'made the platform'.

If you follow the same logic brands like Samsung, Sony, LG and many others also should get 30 percent of every subscription people use on their TV. Because the OS on the TV is their platform and if I sub to Apple TV+ or Netflix 30 percent should go to the brand manufacturer. They use the TV API's WebOS, Tizen etc. so they must pay up for all the value provided and getting access to the Samsung/LG/Sony/... customer base. Of course nobody would be okay with such things, unless it is about Apple for some reason.

Also most apps would use the web browser if they could have a good app experience like that but Apple actively doesn't innovate much there so that it will always be the inferior option.
Score: 12 Votes (Like | Disagree)