Did you know that by subscribing to your favorite subscriptions via the App Store on an Apple device, you are throwing money out the window without realizing it? In March 2024, the Cupertino firm once again suffered the wrath of the European Commission and was then fined a record 1.8 billion euros for abuse of a dominant position on the market music streaming. The tech giant has long prevented competing platforms from informing their users about in-app subscription fees. Indeed, Apple applies a 30% commission on subscriptions made via the App Store. Spotify, Deezer and YouTube Music plans, among many other services of the kind, are therefore cheaper elsewhere: information that the American company has been careful not to disclose for as long as possible.
This historic conviction has motivated the National Association for the Defense of Consumers and Users (CLCV, Consommation, Logement, Cadre de Vie) to prepare a class action aimed at reimburse subscribers affected by these overcharges. After an appeal launched to consumers last February, our colleagues at L’Informé confirm that the organization of the procedure is following its course at the CLCV.
More than 100 euros at stake for victims of this practice
Spotify has been careful to disable subscriptions via the App Store since 2016 in order to protect users, but it is still possible to incur Apple fees on other platforms. In the case of Deezer for example, a Premium subscription is billed €11.99 per month from the official website of the music service, while the iOS application displays a price of €14.99. Over a year, this represents an additional expense of €36 that could have easily been avoided.
François Carlier, general delegate of the CLCV, declared to L’Informeé that this action “aims to claim compensation for consumer damages” with Apple and estimates that at least 100,000 French people are affected by this overcharging without even knowing it. If you still weren't aware, here are the actions you can already take. First, it is possible to cancel all of your subscriptions taken out via your Apple account. To restart them at the standard rate, simply go through the individual billing system of each platform.
Then, the CLCV is still trying to get in touch with subscribers who are victims of overcharging in order to build their class action case. This call concerns subscribers to the following platforms, who subscribed via an iPhone or iPad between June 30, 2015 and March 4, 2024:
- Spotify
- Deezer
- Amazon Music
- YouTube Music
- Soundcloud
- Tidal
- Qobuz
To support this effort and assert consumers' rights, the association invites the persons concerned to contact us by email at the following address: [emailprotected]
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