Finance

Apple stock drops as the EU hands down landmark $2 billion antitrust fine


Apple logo displayed on a building

Apple is launching its Vision Pro headset in FebruaryNurPhoto/ Getty

Shares of Apple slipped 3% in Monday trading after the iPhone maker was handed a big antitrust fine by the European Commission.

Shares of Apple were trading at $173.98 at 1:10 p.m. in New York, down from Friday’s close of $179.66.

The drop came as Apple was hit with a $1.8 billion euro penalty, or around $1.95 billion, by European Union regulators on Monday for what they said was a decadelong period of “abusing its dominant position on the market” in the way it distributed music-streaming services via its app store.

Apple imposed certain restrictions, the regulators said, which pushed up fees for developers that were ultimately passed onto customers.

“This is illegal under EU antitrust rules,” Margrethe Vestager, EU’s executive vice president in charge of competition policy, said in a press release.

Apple said in a press release that it would appeal the decision, which it criticized for failing to provide evidence of consumer harms and for overlooking surging competition, saying the decision was “not grounded in existing competition law.”

The investigation into Apple’s practices came after Spotify, one of the affected music streaming services, filed a lawsuit against Apple for imposing a 30% commission on app developers.

Spotify shares were up by about 2% in Monday afternoon trading.

Read the original article on Business Insider



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