Apple Faces New Antitrust Complaint Over App Store Commission in Europe

Jun. 16, 2020

Japanese tech company, Rakuten, has filed an antitrust complaint against Apple with the European Commission. The complaint, which was filed by Rakuten’s e-book subsidiary, Kobo, claims that the US tech giant wrongfully charges a 30% commission on every e-book sold through its iOS app. Kobo competes directly with Apple’s own digital books platform,Apple Books.

According to Kobo, Apple is abusing its position asthe owner of the App Storeto favor its own e-books platform over those of its competitors. The news about the latest antitrust complaint against Apple is believed to have been broken byFTearlier today.

The complaint from Kobo is at least the second such allegation against the Cupertino giant in recent memory. Last month,Tile filed a similar complaintagainst the iPhone-maker in a letter to European competition commissioner, Margrethe Vestager. In its complaint, the company alleged that Apple is favoring its own ‘FindMy’ application against Tile’s tracking app in violation of the region’s antitrust regulations.

While Apple is yet to comment on the latest report, the company has denied all earlier allegations. It called Tile’s allegations“meritless attacks”and dismissed Spotify’s complaints as a“damaging step backwards for the music industry”. It will be interesting to see what the company has to say about the latest developments.

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