Spotify lodges EU complaint against Apple over unfair music competition

Swedish music streaming giant Spotify said Wednesday it had filed a complaint with the EU Commission against Apple, accusing its US rival of stifling competition in the online music market.

"In recent years, Apple has introduced rules to the App Store that purposely limit choice and stifle innovation at the expense of the user experience ? essentially acting as both a player and referee to deliberately disadvantage other app developers," Spotify said in a statement.

Spotify said it had tried unsuccessfully to resolve the issues directly with Apple, and was now asking the Commission to "take action to ensure fair competition".

Spotify, launched in Sweden just over a decade ago, claims 207 million users in the world, of whom 96 million a paying subscribers.