The Apple Music Streaming Case: The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly

On March 4, 2024, the European Commission fined Apple €1.84 billion “over abusive App store rules for music streaming providers”. In particular, the Commission was concerned about the anti-steering provisions that Apple imposed on these providers. Although the full decision has not yet been published (I am told it could be a matter of months), the public information underpinning this decision is already interesting on several levels. In the following, I explore the good (1.), the bad (2.), and the ugly (3.) of the “App Store Practices (music streaming)” decision based on the information available as of this writing.