Apple is on the hook for some serious fines.
On Monday, the tech giant was fined 1.8 billion euros ($1.95 billion) by European Union regulators over anti-competitive practices in the App Store, specifically over competing music streaming apps, the New York Times reports.
The penalty comes after a five-year investigation initiated by Spotify. Regulators say Apple abused its dominance to exclude other apps competing with its own Apple Music streaming service on the App Store.
One of the reasons behind the dispute is that Apple requires apps to use its in-app payment system to process sales, taking up to 30 percent in commissions for each transaction.
According to Engadget, the European Commission announced "that Apple bans music streaming app developers from fully informing iOS users about alternative and cheaper music subscription services available outside of the app and from providing any instructions about how to subscribe to such offers."
“While we respect the European Commission, the facts simply don’t support this decision,” said Apple via a statement, per the NYT. “Fundamentally, [Spotify’s] complaint is about trying to get limitless access to all of Apple’s tools without paying anything for the value Apple provides.”
Apple plans to appeal the decision.
