Yesterday I told you that Spotify has accused Apple by the fact that they refuse to publish in the App Store an update for the application through which the functions of their audio streaming service are accessed, the Swedes stating that this affects both the image of the company and the experience of people who use their service.
In response to these accusations, the head of Apple's legal department, Bruce Sewell, published a 3-page letter in which he offers some answers, but also makes some accusations against Spotify, and from here things will probably evolve into a confrontation from which the Swedes they will probably come out much more wrinkled.
To begin with, Sewell claims that Spotify profited enormously from the existence of its application in the App Store, generating over 160 million downloads from 2009 to the present, Apple's chief lawyer stating that the Swedes would have earned several hundred million dollars from these downloads made on Apple iDevices.
Moreover, Apple appears to be offended by the fact that Spotify lies publicly about the reasons on the basis of which the update for their application is rejected for publication in the App Store, this violates Apple's rules.
There can be no doubt that Spotify has benefited enormously from its association with Apple's App Store. Since joining the App Store in 2009, Apple's platform has provided you with over 160 million downloads of your app, resulting in hundreds of millions of dollars in incremental revenue to Spotify. That's why we find it troubling that you are asking for exemptions to the rules we apply to all developers, and are publicly referring to rumors and half-truths about our service.
Specifically, Spotify is trying to publish in the App Store an application that allows users to buy subscriptions for its streaming service directly through its own website and not through the iTunes Store, as Apple requires, this method eliminating the need for 30% of the price of the Spotify subscription to be paid to Apple, as happens with any subscriptions.
Those from Apple requested that Spotify solve this problem, and then the application will be published in the App Store, but the Swedes updated the application and sent a new version, which contains the same subscription system, and of course Apple was not satisfied of this change, so he decided to reject the update and will continue to do so if things do not change.
During a number of discussions between our team and Spotify, we explained why this sign-up feature did not comply with our guidelines and requested you to resubmit a compliant version of the app. On June 10, Spotify submitted another version of the app which again incorporated the sign-up feature directing App Store customers to submit an email address so they could be contacted directly by Spotify in a continued attempt to get around our guidelines. Spotify's app was again rejected for attempting to circumvent in-app purchase rules, and not, as you claim, because Spotify was simply seeking to communicate with its customers.
Basically, Apple is trying to force Spotify, as it does with all application developers, to sell service subscriptions through the iTunes Store, so that it collects 30% of the money paid by users, but Spotify is trying to resist this strategy in order to be able to collect all the money, without paying anything to Apple.
In this situation, Apple hosts the Spotify application for free and earns absolutely nothing from its presence in the App Store, the situation not being to the liking of the Americans, so if Spotify does not change the method of subscribing to its services, its application could be completely withdrawn.
Additional details from Bruce Sewell's letter find here.
