Apple Lossless Audio CODEC (ALAC), is being investigated by the European authorities for unfair competition, the American company having its business verified by the Dutch authorities at the moment. Although Spotify filed a complaint with the European Commission some time ago, the Dutch authorities are the ones who want to check whether Apple treats its application developers correctly.
To begin with, Apple News and Apple Music are being investigated, although the first one is not available in the Netherlands at the moment, but it will still be under the attention of the authorities. They want to see how much Apple favors its own applications over those created by third-party developers, in the case of Spotify things are quite clear, the platform being disadvantaged.
Following a preliminary analysis, the Dutch authorities have come to the conclusion that there are enough concerns about the way Apple conducts its business in the country. Third-party developers are disadvantaged because they do not have access to all iPhone functions, as is the case with native applications, Siri and the NFC chip being brought into discussion by the authorities.
Within the iOS-ecosystem, there are no realistic alternatives for apps or the App Store, so the App Store forms a bottleneck within the iOS-ecosystem […] App providers experience problems with the interoperability with the operating system of with functionalities on the phone , like with Siri or the NFC-chip. Other app providers have indicated that even though their apps are given full access to the app stores they have a strong disadvantage compared to proprietary Apple and Google apps, due to the pre-installation of their own apps.
The reality is that yes, Apple unquestionably favors its own applications, and restricts the activity of developers, but they make a lot of money even in these conditions.
