The European Union has fined US Apple nearly $2 billion for violating competition laws, as the platform unfairly favored its own music service.
Apple has banned app developers from "fully informing users of the iOS system about alternative and cheaper music subscription services," the European Commission said.
"This is illegal and has affected millions of European consumers," said Margrete Vestager, the EU's competition commissioner.
Apple did so for nearly a decade, which meant many users paid "significantly more in subscriptions to stream music," the commission said.
The fine is nearly four times higher than expected, and according to Vestager, a smaller fine would be like a "parking ticket" and that the fine was designed to act as a "deterrent" to such practices for Apple and others.
"I think it's important to see that if you're a dominant company and you do something illegal, you're going to be punished."
The 1,8 billion euro fine followed a lengthy investigation that was launched five years ago by a complaint from Spotify, the Swedish music service.
The investigation focused on a restriction that prevented developers from informing iPhone and iPad users about other ways to subscribe to music streaming services that bypass Apple. Spotify claims the restrictions favor Apple's rival music streaming service, Apple Music.
Apple says it will appeal the decision.
"The decision was made despite the Commission's failure to find any credible evidence of consumer harm and ignores the reality of a competitive, thriving and rapidly growing market," the company said in a statement.
It is also said that Spotify will benefit from this decision, with the claim that the Swedish service, which holds a 56 percent share of the European market and does not pay Apple for the use of their store, has met with the Commission 65 times in the last eight years.
The Commission's investigation initially focused on two issues. One was the iPhone maker's practice of forcing app owners that sell digital content to use its internal payment system, which charges a 30 percent commission on all subscriptions. But they later dropped the issue to focus on how Apple prevents app makers from informing users of cheaper ways to pay for subscriptions that don't involve going through an app.
The investigation revealed that Apple has banned streaming services from telling users how much subscriptions cost outside of their apps. Apple's fine comes in the same week that new rules aimed at preventing tech companies from dominating digital markets are due to come into force in the EU.
The Digital Markets Act, due to come into force on Thursday, imposes a range of rules on companies including Apple, Meta, Google Alphabet and TikTok's ByteDance.
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