EU antitrust watchdog considering Apple probe

The European Union's competition watchdog is considering opening a probe of Apple over allegations that it uses its app store to gain an advantage on its own services over rivals', the authority's chief said on Thursday. Competition Commissioner Margrethe Vestager, told German newspaper Tagesspiegel her watchdog would examine if there were parallels with Google, which is 2017 was fined over 2 billion euros for unfairly disadvantaging rivals on its platform.

"We have to examine the role of Apple and Apple's app store," she was quoted as saying. "If we conclude that they have a market-dominating position, then the case would be comparable to our procedings against Google." The EU's consideration of a possible probe of Apple comes after music streaming service Spotify filed a complaint against the iPhone maker, saying it was unfairly limiting rivals to its own Apple Music streaming service.