Turkey Probes Spotify for Anti-Competitive Behavior

Turkey’s competition authority is investigating Spotify for alleged anti-competitive practices. The streaming service is also being threatened with legal action over playlists that allegedly disrespect Islam.

The accusations:

• As per Digital Music News, on Friday July 4 Turkey’s competition authority released a statement announcing its investigation into “various allegations that the strategies and policies implemented by Spotify [...] in Turkey [have] caused anti-competitive effects in the music industry.”

• It will consider whether Spotify provides “more visibility to certain artists in violation of competition law.”

• It will also probe the streaming company’s royalty distribution practices.

Provocative playlists:

• On the same day Deputy Culture Minister Batuhan Mumcu took to social media to call for legal action against Spotify, stating it had ignored previous warnings about content that “targets our religious and national values and insults the beliefs of our society.”

• He mentioned playlists that “disregard our religious sensitivities toward our Prophet Mohammed,” as well as “insidiously provocative and morally unacceptable” playlists allegedly targeting Emine Erdoğan, wife of President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.

The response:

• Spotify has claimed compliance with “all applicable laws” in Turkey, but it will cooperate with the investigation.