The company also faces a $40 billion fine.

According to Bloomberg, EU regulators have sided with Spotify in its long-running battle against Apple and its App Store policies, which restrict the rights of competitors. The decision is currently being finalized and will be officially announced at the beginning of next year.

According to the document, Apple will receive a large fine (up to $40 billion) and a ban on the practice, which foreign lawyers call anti-steering — the company does not allow developers to use third-party in-app purchase systems other than its own with a mandatory 30% commission. Four years ago, Spotify complained that Apple was forcing it to raise prices for services in this way, and in 2021 the European Commission brought formal antitrust charges against the company.

The regulators’ previous finding said Apple offered “unfair terms of trade” — for years the company didn’t allow streaming rivals like Spotify to even include links to third-party payment apps in their subscriptions. After an antitrust investigation in Japan, Apple loosened restrictions somewhat, the EU is next.

The European Commission previously said it would review Apple’s ban on notifications about other forms of payment, while the fee was not mentioned. A separate investigation into Apple’s payment system was previously made public, and the company is currently negotiating a settlement.

A similar antitrust lawsuit was filed against Epic Games, and while a judge sided with the Fortnite developer, Apple appealed to the Supreme Court and was granted a temporary stay.

At the same time, Google in a similar case with Epic this week got a slightly different result — the court found that the tech giant illegally “dominated” among the app stores.