Apple announces Apple One, Spotify takes offense at the announcement of Apple One

Apple is rolling out Apple One that offers Apple Music, Apple TV+, Apple Arcade, Apple News+, Apple Fitness+, and iCloud in one simple plan. Starting this fall, Apple customers in over 100 countries will be able to subscribe to Apple One to use the Apple services with a single subscription across all App devices including iPhone, iPad, iPod touch, Apple TV, and Mac.

There are three pricing tiers available for Apple One. 

• Individual Plan includes Apple Music, Apple TV+, Apple Arcade, and 50GB of iCloud storage for $14.95 per month.
• Family Plan includes Apple Music, Apple TV+, Apple Arcade, and 200GB of iCloud storage for $19.95 per month, and can be shared among up to six family members. 
• Premier Plan, where available, includes Apple Music, Apple TV+, Apple Arcade, Apple News+, Apple Fitness+, and 2TB of iCloud storage for $29.95 per month, and can be shared among up to six family members.

After the announcement of Apple One that includes Apple Music, Spotify issued a statement that accuses Apple of practicing unfair competition. Here is the full statement of Spotify:

“Once again, Apple is using its dominant position and unfair practices to disadvantage competitors and deprive consumers by favoring its own services. We call on competition authorities to act urgently to restrict Apple’s anti-competitive behavior, which if left unchecked, will cause irreparable harm to the developer community and threaten our collective freedoms to listen, learn, create, and connect.”

In response, Apple said “Customers can discover and enjoy alternatives to every one of Apple’s services. We’re introducing Apple One because it is a great value for customers and a simple way to access the full range of Apple’s subscription services. We’ll be recommending the Apple One plan that saves you the most money based on the subscriptions you already have. It’s perfect for anyone who loves any of our services and wants to get more for less, and it’s especially great for families. Also select services included in Apple One are available to enjoy on non-Apple devices, and you can cancel anytime.”

It is not the first time Apple has been accused of unfair competition. Last year Spotify filed an official complaint with the EU, saying that Apple acts as both a player and referee to deliberately disadvantage other app developers. In response, Apple accused Spotify of getting benefits from the App Store without contributing to it. A couple of weeks ago, Fortnite maker Epic Games asked the court to stop Apple’s ‘retaliation’ in order to  “free consumers and developers from Apple’s costly, anti-competitive control.”