Consumer advocacy group Euroconsumer is launching a class-action lawsuit in Belgium, Italy, Spain, and Portugal, accusing Apple of causing music service subscription price increases.
"Apple didn't play fair," reads the Euroconsumer lawsuit page. "As a big tech player, Apple abused its power to impose up to 30% extra charges on non-Apple music streaming services like Spotify, Deezer, YouTube Music, SoundCloud, Amazon Music, Tidal, and Qobuz through its Apple App Store."
The lawsuit claims that third-party streaming services raised prices for iOS users to cover the lost revenue. Euroconsumer alleges these price hikes led to consumers paying around 3 euros more per month for their chosen service.
The group further claims that Apple has made around 259 million euros in "unfair profits by overcharging consumers through their non-Apple Music streaming services" in Europe alone. Euroconsumer is "fighting to reclaim the overpaid money for more than 500,000 victims in Belgium, Italy, Spain, and Portugal."
It's worth noting that companies are not required to raise prices to operate on the App Store. As mentioned, these companies are passing the costs onto consumers.
Additionally, many of these companies continue to claim Apple takes more than it actually does. Apple has changed the App Store's fee structure, now charging only 15% for subscriptions lasting over a year, instead of the blanket 30% Spotify claims Apple still demands on all subscriptions.
Still, Apple is under increased scrutiny from advocacy groups and regulators alike. In March, the European Union fined Apple $2 billion for anti-steering practices, despite Apple not holding a dominant position in the EU's music streaming market.
This isn't the first time Euroconsumer has targeted Apple. In 2020, it sued Apple over an iOS update that throttled iPhone CPU performance for system stability reasons. In 2021, it also demanded that Apple address allegations of excessive battery drain in iOS 14.5 and later updates.