Senator Elizabeth Warren Accuses Apple of Using Its Size to 'Snuff Out Competition', Spotify Agrees

Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts has accused Apple, Amazon, and Google of using their size to 'snuff out competition', reports Re/code.

In a speech about the perils of “consolidation and concentration” throughout the economy Warren accused each company of using their powerful platforms to “lock out smaller guys and newer guys.”


According to the Senator, Google uses “its dominant search engine to harm rivals of its Google Plus user review feature”; Apple “has placed conditions on its rivals that make it difficult for them to offer competitive streaming services” that compete with Apple Music; and Amazon “uses its position as the dominant bookseller to steer consumers to books published by Amazon to the detriment of other publishers.”

“Google, Apple and Amazon have created disruptive technologies that changed the world, and ... they deserve to be highly profitable and successful,” Warren said. “But the opportunity to compete must remain open for new entrants and smaller competitors that want their chance to change the world again.”

Although Apple, Google, and Amazon refused to comment, Spotify had some choice words about Apple.

“Apple has long used its control of iOS to squash competition in music, driving up the prices of its competitors, inappropriately forbidding us from telling our customers about lower prices, and giving itself unfair advantages across its platform through everything from the lock screen to Siri. You know there’s something wrong when Apple makes more off a Spotify subscription than it does off an Apple Music subscription and doesn’t share any of that with the music industry. They want to have their cake and eat everyone else’s too.”


More details in the full report linked below...

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