A report by the Financial Times has stated that technology firms such as Spotify have called on Europe via the European Commission (EC) to 'crack down' on Apple and Google's app store practices. As seen in a letter signed by the CEOs of Deezer, Spotify and Rocket Internet to the EC, there's been a request to probe the way both Google and Apple 'abuse their privileged position.' Some of this complaint derives from this concept that mobile OSs, app stores and search engines have made the evolution from 'gateways' into 'gatekeepers,' stopping third-party software from being able to effectively compete with their own services. On top of this, the companies are unable to access customer data when they sign up through an app store like the Google Play Store. This makes it the second time that Spotify has hit out against Apple, the first being against the 'Apple tax' which the company had which involved the charge of a 30% fee towards any sales through its App Store including subscription services.
- Apple and Google combined, account for 90 per cent of the mobile market
This article could be used to display the way in which online/e-media, with all its good things has also got a more negative side attached to it. Here we see two digital giants attempting to assert their power over other companies in an attempt to prevent them from growing in the way that they should be. Google especially has been notorious for this, particularly in terms of its 'siphoning off' of ad revenue from news publications. It'll be interesting to see whether or not the EC follow through with the request to probe the two giants or not, seeing that they're doing something that could be regarded as preventing competition.
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