Spotify launched its audiobook business just last month with 300,000 titles, but is now saying that Apple is engaging in "anticompetitive" behavior that is impinging the new business, the company wrote in a blog post. It said that Apple rejected its audiobook purchasing system three times due to a violation of its rules. To comply, it had to hide the price of the audiobooks and do sales outside of the main app via an email link.All of that makes it harder for Spotify to compete, as users can't easily compare prices. "[This] harms not only consumers, but, this time, also authors and publishers who now find themselves under Apple’s thumb." It's also highly inconvenient for buyers used to simply clicking on a link to buy an audiobook.Spotify's audiobooks could have easily been accepted if the company had followed the App Store rules, Apple told The New York Times. "We provided them with clear guidance on how to resolve the issue, and approved their app after they made changes that brought it into compliance," an Apple spokesperson said.Spotify could also have sold its audiobooks through the App Store's purchasing system, but Apple would then take a 30 percent cut — putting Spotify's audiobooks at a considerable disadvantage against Apple Books. "With our Audiobooks launch, Apple has once again proven just how brazen it is willing to be with its App Store rules, constantly shifting the goalposts to disadvantage their competitors," said Spotify CEO Daniel Ek.Spotify is already... Continue reading at 'Engadget'
[ Engadget | 2022-10-26 07:02:10 UTC ]
Google and its lobbyists have had more meetings with European Commission officials than any other company, according to figures published by Transparency International on Wednesday.With 32 meetings logged between December and June, Google’s lobbying is topped only by that of BusinessEurope,... Continue reading at PC World
[ PC World | 2015-06-25 00:00:00 UTC ]
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The planned reform of European Union (EU) copyright law must strike a fair balance between authors’ rights and public access to culture, members of the European Parliament (MEPs) agreed in a vote on Tuesday (16th June). The parliament’s legal affairs committee backed some proposals from... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2015-06-19 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Philip Pullman has warned that the European Commission should consider falling author income as part of its investigation into Amazon's ebook business. The author warned The Bookseller that the investigation, announced yesterday (11th June), was failing to take the role of the author into... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2015-06-13 00:00:00 UTC ]
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The European Commission has opened a formal antitrust investigation into the way Amazon distributes ebooks and its relationship with publishers. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2015-06-12 00:00:00 UTC ]
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The UK Booksellers Association has taken a lead role in pressing for a regulatory investigation into Amazon, The Bookseller can reveal. The association submitted a dossier to the Competition and Markets Authority last November about Amazon’s “domination” of the UK market, which it believes paved... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2015-06-12 00:00:00 UTC ]
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The trade has welcomed the European Commission’s investigation into Amazon’s ebook business, with publishers, agents and booksellers calling for a fairer digital marketplace for books. Richard Mollet, c.e.o of The Publishers Association, added: “For some time now we have been calling on... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2015-06-12 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Amazon.com’s ebook distribution deals are coming under close scrutiny from the European Commission, which has begun a formal antitrust investigation into the company’s contracts with publishers.The probe will focus on clauses in Amazon’s contracts that require publishers to tell the company... Continue reading at PC World
[ PC World | 2015-06-11 00:00:00 UTC ]
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The move continues a trend of cracking down on the operations of major tech companies in Europe.In recent months, European regulators increasingly have been scrutinizing the practices of U.S. tech giants that dominate their respective industries, focusing their investigatory efforts on Amazon,... Continue reading at Fast Company
[ Fast Company | 2015-06-11 00:00:00 UTC ]
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"Vested interests" profiting only a few will attempt to hold up the reform of copyright, Andrus Ansip, vice president for the digital single market (DSM) at the European Commission, has said. Speaking at the European Digital Forum in Brussels yesterday (1st June), Ansip said that copyright... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2015-06-03 00:00:00 UTC ]
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The European Commission has a grand plan to create a single market for digital content across all the member states of the EU, so it can be bought and sold without barriers such as the administrative burden of different VAT rates. The creation of that market will help entrepreneurial start-up... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2015-05-16 00:00:00 UTC ]
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The European Commission has announced an antitrust competition inquiry into the e-commerce sector in the European Union, as part of 16 initiatives on a digital single market to be delivered by the end of next year. The inquiry “will allow the Commission to identify possible competition concerns... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2015-05-07 00:00:00 UTC ]
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The European Commission is today (6th May) set to reveal plans for the “digital single market”, to remove barriers to online services across Europe. The plans would mean that customers across the European Union could all access the same digital services and products, including ebooks and... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2015-05-07 00:00:00 UTC ]
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The Booksellers Association has said it hopes the European Commission’s competition inquiry into the e-commerce sector will look specifically at market dominance in ebooks. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2015-05-07 00:00:00 UTC ]
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The French, German, Italian and Polish culture ministers today released a joint statement calling for the European Commission to propose immediately legislation to allow VAT on ebooks to be levied at the same reduced rate as print books. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2015-03-20 00:00:00 UTC ]
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The European Court of Justice has ordered France and Luxembourg to restore their standard VAT rates on ebooks in a ruling announced today (5th March). The court upheld a decision previously made by European Commission, which ruled that the two countries cannot charge the same VAT rate on ebooks... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2015-03-06 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Apple has recorded a quarterly net profit of £18bn for its first fiscal quarter, said to be the biggest ever for a public company. The company’s results, for the quarter ending 27th December 2014, also showed quarterly revenue of £74.6bn, up 29% from $57.6bn in the same period the year... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2015-01-29 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Luxembourg provided “state aid” to Amazon through its tax arrangements for the company, the European Commission has said in a preliminary finding. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2015-01-17 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Two graduates of Hawaii's Iolani School, Matt Sullivan and Landen Buckley, have taken on the photo book market with their StoryTree Inc. app SimplePrints. Unlike online photo services such as Shutterfly and Snapfish, SimplePrints was designed for mobile devices to make photo books, clearing... Continue reading at Silicon Valley Business Journal
[ Silicon Valley Business Journal | 2014-11-13 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Publishers Association chief executive Richard Mollet has warned that the new European Commission's drive to impose a digital single market risks undermining Europe's cultural diversity and will play into the hands of US-based platform companies. Jean-Claude Juncker's new commission, which... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2014-11-05 00:00:00 UTC ]
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An agreement between the European Commission and Google over alleged abuses of its dominant... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2014-09-23 00:00:00 UTC ]
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