A huge €1.8 billion ($2 billion) fine was imposed on Apple in March in response to a case that Spotify had first brought out in 2019. The grievance was straightforward: app developers are being billed by Apple 15% for each additional year that a user subscribes to their service, and 30% for the first year. Due to Spotify's forced increase in subscription fees to offset the tax, Apple Music was given an unfair advantage over the latter.

But Apple won't just hand over the cash. According to Bloomberg, Apple has launched a separate lawsuit in an attempt to get the substantial sentence overturned at the EU General Court in Luxembourg.

Apple contends that the European Commission failed to present solid proof that its App Store regulations had a negative impact on customers. Although we are not legal experts, we don't believe that is how antitrust rules operate—predatory pricing, for instance, is expressly prohibited. In any case, the lawyers for the EC and Apple should discuss that.

In the past, apps were not even permitted to promote the fact that customers could subscribe for less money if they used the website instead. Since then, the EC has established regulations requiring Apple to permit app developers to promote alternate payment options.