The US tech giant has been accused of abusing its dominant position in the market for the distribution of music streaming apps

这家美国科技巨头被指控滥用其在音乐流媒体应用发行市场的主导地位
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The EU announced on Monday it has fined tech giant Apple €1.84 billion ($2 billion) for breaking the bloc’s competition laws. This is the company’s first ever EU antitrust penalty.

欧盟周一宣布，因违反欧盟竞争法，对科技巨头苹果公司处以18.4亿欧元(合20亿美元)的罚款。这是该公司首次受到欧盟反垄断处罚。

According to the EU’s executive arm, the European Commission, the company prevented rival music streaming services such as Spotify from telling iPhone users that they could find cheaper ways to subscribe outside of Apple’s app store.

欧盟执行机构欧盟委员会(European Commission)表示，苹果阻止了Spotify等竞争对手的音乐流媒体服务告诉iPhone用户，他们可以在苹果应用商店之外找到更便宜的订阅方式。

Apple has “abused its dominant position” as a distributor of music streaming apps, the EU’s competition and digital chief Margrethe Vestager said, adding that European consumers did not have “a free choice as to where, how and at what prices to buy music streaming subscxtions.”

欧盟负责竞争和数字事务的主管玛格丽特·维斯塔格(Margrethe Vestager)表示，苹果“滥用了其作为流媒体音乐应用分销商的主导地位”，并补充说，欧洲消费者没有“自由选择在哪里、如何以及以什么价格购买流媒体音乐订阅”。

“This is illegal and it has impacted millions of European consumers,” Vestager stated during a press conference.

维斯塔格在新闻发布会上表示:“这是非法的，它影响了数百万欧洲消费者。”
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Apple has disputed the accusations, warning it would challenge the decision, which was “reached despite the Commission’s failure to uncover any credible evidence of consumer harm” in court. The EC’s decision “ignores the realities of a market that is thriving, competitive, and growing fast,” the company said in a statement.

苹果公司对这些指控提出了异议，并警告说，它将对这一裁决提出质疑，该裁决是“在欧盟委员会未能发现任何损害消费者利益的可信证据的情况下”在法庭上做出的。该公司在一份声明中表示，欧盟委员会的决定“忽视了一个蓬勃发展、竞争激烈、增长迅速的市场的现实”。

“The primary advocate for this decision – and the biggest beneficiary – is Spotify, a company based in Stockholm, Sweden. Spotify has the largest music streaming app in the world, and has met with the European Commission more than 65 times during this investigation,” Apple claimed.

这一决定的主要倡导者——也是最大的受益者——是位于瑞典斯德哥尔摩的Spotify公司。Spotify拥有世界上最大的音乐流媒体应用程序，在调查期间与欧盟委员会会面超过65次，”苹果声称。

The EC opened a formal antitrust investigation into Apple in 2020 after Spotify lodged a complaint against the US company the previous year, accusing it of unfairly disadvantaging its competitors. The Swedish firm on Monday cheered the EC’s ruling, calling it “an important moment in the fight for a more open internet for consumers.”

欧盟委员会于2020年对苹果展开了正式的反垄断调查，此前一年Spotify对苹果提起诉讼，指控其不公平地使竞争对手处于不利地位。这家瑞典公司周一对欧盟委员会的裁决表示欢迎，称这是“为消费者争取更开放的互联网的重要时刻”。
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Apple’s policies have also drawn the attention of antitrust regulators. Last month, the company said it would allow EU customers to download apps without going through its own app store, a response to the bloc’s Digital Markets Act.

苹果的政策也引起了反垄断监管机构的注意。上个月，该公司表示，作为对欧盟《数字市场法案》(Digital Markets Act)的回应，它将允许欧盟客户无需通过自己的应用商店即可下载应用程序。