The EU is cracking down on Apple.
The EU is cracking down on Apple.
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Apple’s $1.9B EU fine for app store barriers could foreshadow gaming changes

  • Posted byby Dean Takahashi
  • Updated
  • 2 min

The European Commission fined Apple $1.9 billion (1.8 billion euros) today for putting barriers in place for music apps in its app store.

The fine validated antitrust concerns raised by Spotify about how Apple is a gatekeeper in the market. Regarding music, the EU said, “In particular, the commission found that Apple applied restrictions on app developers preventing them from informing iOS users about alternative and cheaper music subscription services available outside of the app (‘anti-steering provisions’). This is illegal under EU antitrust rules.”

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Written by

Dean Takahashi

Dean Takahashi is editorial director for GamesBeat. He has been a tech journalist since 1988, and he has covered games as a beat since 1996. He was lead writer for GamesBeat at VentureBeat from 2008 to April 2025. Prior to that, he wrote for the San Jose Mercury News, the Red Herring, the Wall Street Journal, the Los Angeles Times, and the Dallas Times-Herald. He is the author of two books, "Opening the Xbox" and "The Xbox 360 Uncloaked." He organizes the annual GamesBeat Next, GamesBeat Summit and GamesBeat Insider Series: Hollywood and Games conferences and is a frequent speaker at gaming and tech events. He lives in the San Francisco Bay Area.