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The European Union has announced it is ending its investigation into Apple's treatment of rival audiobook developers on the App Store, saying the original plaintiff has withdrawn its case.
The EU investigation began in 2020, alongside other antitrust probes into Apple Pay and the App Store. At the time, an unnamed distributor of e-books and audiobooks filed a complaint alleging that Apple was preventing developers from obtaining important customer data.
According to the Wall Street Journal, the European Commission has now closed its investigation. The EU says the closure is due specifically to the complaint being withdrawn, and should not be taken as a decision that Apple is right.
“The Commission will continue to monitor business practices in the European tech sector, including those of Apple,” an EC spokesperson said in a statement, “under both the DMA [Digital Markets Act] and competition rules.”
When initially announcing the audiobook investigation, the EU said it was similar to Spotify’s complaint about Apple’s handling of music streaming. That complaint ultimately led to Apple being fined roughly $2 billion.
Apple has not publicly commented, and neither has the still-unnamed audiobook distributor, which has withdrawn its complaint.
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