One year after Spotify filed an antitrust complaint against Apple with the European Union, company CEO Daniel Ek told Bloomberg that he expects to see the Cupertino tech giant continue opening up its platforms.
In March 2019, Spotify filed a complaint with the European Commission, claiming Apple isn’t sharing App Store customer information with vendors, takes a bigger cut of the action than they should, and unfairly limits third-party access to Apple Watch, Siri, HomePod and other Apple-owned technologies.
Apple initially fought Spotify’s allegations, but Ek claims that since then the iPhone maker has eased restrictions.
“Long term, we do expect Apple to open up,” the Spotify CEO said on Tuesday.
Spotify’s original complaint alleged that Apple had an incentive to disadvantage competitors on the App Store, as Apple is both a platform provider and a direct competitor with services like Apple Music.
In the year since Spotify’s 2019 antitrust complaint, Apple has introduced a feature that allows Siri to control third-party music services like Spotify. Spotify has also released watchOS and tvOS apps to access its service, which is something the music streamer once claimed was impossible.
“We’re very encouraged about being able to now finally use Siri as a way of building in voice support and also being available to build products for the Apple TV and Apple Watch,” Ek told Bloomberg.
