Last March, the leader in music streaming, Spotify,filed a complaintbefore the European Commission, for anti-competitive practices on the part of Apple in the streaming music market.
Spotify makes several criticisms of Apple. But it is above all the 30% tax levied by Apple for purchases and subscriptions via its App Store which is at the center of the debates. Apple disputes the financial arguments put forward by Spotify in its complaint and in particular this famous tax.
According to Apple's response to Spotify's complaint, which was revealed today by Music Business Worldwide, Spotify would not pay the 30% tax on anything at all.
We learn that Spotify would payonly 15%tax to Apple on0,5 %of its 100 million paying subscribers. Which is equivalent to680,000 userswho would have used in-app purchases in the iOS app to subscribe to Spotifybetween 2014-2016.
During these two years, Spotify allowed free users to switch to a paid plan in the iOS app. After 2016, Spotify haddisabled this possibility, in order to avoid paying tax to Apple.
As a reminder, the 30% App Store tax only applies for the first year of subscription, the second and subsequent years it drops to 15%. To encourage developers to keep their apps updated and release new features for paying users.
It therefore appears that Spotify has greatly exaggerated its complaint about the 30% tax, namely that the latter forces the Swedish service to offer a more expensive subscription, to earn as much as Apple Music.
In addition, it has been several years since Spotify disabled the ability to subscribe in the app and redirects users to its site to subscribe and not pay any taxes to Apple. Spotify therefore seems to take advantage of iOS users to obtain new paying subscribers for free.
In the meantime, the European Union continues its investigation against Apple, concerning the conditions of use of the App Store which would disadvantage competitors of the Apple Music service.
Spotify
Pair : Spotify Ltd.
Deputy editor-in-chief, also known under the pseudonym Teza. Former video games journalist, who has been immersed in tech and Apple products since his very first iPhone 3GS in 2009. He has since worked for several American tech sites and now for iPhon.fr. Incidentally YouTuber and Apple product specialist on the MobileAddict channel. To contact me: maxime[a]iphon.fr
