Music-streaming service Spotify Technology SA has filed an antitrust complaint in Europe against Apple Inc., a new salvo in the broader battle over how and whether to rein in alleged wrongdoing by tech giants.
Spotify’s SPOT, -0.70% complaint, filed late Monday to the antitrust arm of the European Union, alleges that Apple AAPL, +1.12% in recent years has abused its control over which apps appear in its App Store. The restrictions, Spotify claims, are designed to restrict music-streaming services that compete with Apple’s own Apple Music.
Spotify claims that Apple made it difficult for rival subscription services to market themselves to users without using Apple’s payment system, which generally takes a 30% cut of transactions. Spotify’s app doesn’t face the same restrictions on in the Play store run by Alphabet Inc.’s GOOGL, +1.53% Google, Spotify said. Spotify also said Apple at times rejected security updates of its app and threatened to kick it out of its App Store for allegedly anticompetitive reasons.
Spotify’s complaint—the first official one made public at the EU level about Apple’s App Store—escalates the global battle over how to regulate tech giants on topics ranging from privacy and taxation to hate speech and competition.
An expanded version of this report appears at WSJ.com.
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