We’re living the next chapter, and it’s messy.
In March, Spotify filed a complaint with European regulators, accusing Apple of using its App Store to squash rivals of its own services, like Apple Music. A focus: the 30 percent fee that Spotify and others pay for using the Apple’s payment system for subscriptions sold via the App Store. (Other app makers have made antitrust complaints about the App Store, too.)
Unidentified sources told The Financial Times that the European Union’s competition commission would open an investigation into Spotify’s complaint. That would result in a lengthy process that could result in Apple’s being fined as much as 10 percent of its global turnover, or forced to change its behavior.
If Apple is found at fault, the correct response is unclear. Pablo Ibáñez Colomo, a professor at the London School of Economics who specializes in competition law, said regulators would struggle to know how far to go. Acting strictly may require the App Store to be micromanaged — but who polices that? If a response doesn’t go that far, what happens about the inevitable flood of complainants wanting their own justice?
A can of worms is set to explode, though it comes with a long fuse.
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■ Investors don’t dig climate start-ups. Venture capitalists want returns within years, and many clean-tech start-ups work to longer timelines, which means they struggle to secure funding.
■ Chinese spies captured the National Security Agency’s weapons. They intercepted the tools from an N.S.A. attack on their own computers, “like a gunslinger who grabs an enemy’s rifle and starts blasting away,” and then used them against ally nations.
■ How will Elizabeth Holmes defend herself? The lawyers for Ms. Holmes, the former Theranos chief executive, look set to take the high-risk strategy of going after the government.