In late May Patently Apple posted a report titled "Apple Updates the App Store's Principles and Practices Webpage as Complaints of their Store being a Monopoly Mount." Today EU regulators said that they will decide what steps to take regarding Spotify’s complaint about Apple once they get a response from Apple.

Spotify, the World's top music streaming service, complained to the European Commission in March that Apple unfairly limits competitors to its Apple Music streaming service. It also criticized Apple’s 30 percent fee levied on content-based service providers for using its in-app purchase system (IAP).

Reuters is reporting that "European Competition Commissioner Margrethe Vestager said she was now seeking feedback from Apple and various quarters. Vestager stated on the sidelines of an OECD conference that “We are looking into that and we have been asking questions around in that market but of course also Apple themselves, for them to answer the allegations. And when they come back, we will know more."

Apple has accused Spotify of wanting to enjoy the benefits of a free app, without being free."

Patently Apple noted in a report back in May that CNBC's Karen Tso interviewed Commissioner Vestager at the VivaTech conference in Paris back in May and brought Apple into focus at one point around the 56 second mark of the video below. Vestager stated that "Spotify has launched a complaint and we're in the process of looking into that. Of course the first thing we do is that we ask the company that's being complained about. We're in the process of getting their answers back. And of course we will then dive in because this market is very important for us, because we have this larger issue at stake as well. Can you, if you are dominant in a market; you have basically won this market; can you then compete with the people doing business with on your platform. So this complaint is also a part of the larger endeavor in order to make sure that we have fair competition." 

It seemed back in May that Vestager was just going through the motions and had already made up her mind to rule against Apple because she made it clear that this market was important to them. With that kind of statement, how can they not rule against Apple? So the exercise of waiting for Apple's response is just a formality of necessity.

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