Speaking to reporters on Friday afternoon, Vestager avoided listing the measures that the executive would consider necessary to resolve the dispute, but hinted that simply eliminating the 30% commission fee would not be enough.

These steps are part of an antitrust investigation, which might eventually lead to a court case. Apart from letting you search for music and create playlists, Deezer excels at recommending new music via its AI that gives suggestions based on what you listen to. The company will have several weeks to examine the arguments, reply in writing or request an oral hearing. Just like Spotify, Deezer has a library of around 70 million songs and also hosts a huge collection of podcasts. The Commission's conclusions are preliminary and have already been sent to Apple. Spotify, Deezer and SoundCloud are among the companies that have put their rivalries aside to form the Digital Music Europe (DME) alliance. For example: an app developer may be forced to increase the overall subscription price in order to offset the 30% commission fee, putting Apple Music at an advantage.

The combination of these two rules, the Commission explained, raises costs for consumers and distorts competition in the market. Similar to SoundCloud : Spotify wants to promote independent artists on its platform by taking a cut of their royalties. On the other hand, the so-called 'anti-steering provisions' prevent app developers form informing users of alternative and cheaper subscription offers that may be located outside of the apps.

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