[miguelxt]

Spotify does not get that money. The general EU budget does.

> Fines imposed on undertakings found in breach of EU antitrust rules are paid into the general EU budget. This money is not earmarked for particular expenses, but Member States' contributions to the EU budget for the following year are reduced accordingly. The fines therefore help to finance the EU and reduce the burden for taxpayers.

https://competition-policy.ec.europa.eu/index/fines_en

[jeltz]

Yes, these are fines, not damages. The headline says as much.

[leereeves]

Can Spotify sue for damages as well?

[jeltz]

Interesting question and I suspect so but since I am no lawyer plus have never heard of such a case in the media I do not know.

[vincnetas]

They do not sell subscriptions on apple store.

[spywaregorilla]

I wonder if there is perhaps some sort of anti-trust based reason for that?

[techpression]

There are no damages really, without Apple Spotify would be a dead product by now. Their entire existence is more or less due to the advent of iPhones and the App Store where customers subscriptions were significantly higher than any other platform (this was common knowledge within the organization too, we loved Apple, I say we as I worked there for many years)

[andybak]

Without Apple, there would be other mobile devices, surely? It was an idea that was in the air. Arguments about Apple doing it better or quicker or differently don't have much bearing on your specific point here.

[techpression]

There were, windows phone and android, but neither could prove the Spotify model that offering a free tier led to paying subscribers (and at least Android had enough market share for this to be certain), something their entire existence was built on and something the labels questioned a lot. People seem to forget this part entirely.

Now you could argue everyone on iOS would pay as happily on Android if there were no iOS, but then you argue fiction against reality.

[andybak]

Your argument is about a hypothetical counterfactual.

We are both arguing fiction against fiction. We can't re-run the experiment without Apple.

[sebstefan]

"without Apple Spotify would be a dead product by now" is fiction as well

You can argue fiction against fiction by saying everyone on iOS would pay as happily on Android if there were no iOS

[Hikikomori]

Well Apple would be nowhere without the invention of the wheel.