That's a valid opinion about what Spotify should do, but the fact is for a time Spotify did pass some of the fee on to iOS customers by charging a higher price for IAP.
The question is, should Spotify be able to tell customers that they are getting a higher fee because they are making the purchase on an iOS device?
To me, it requires massive contortions of logic to believe that customers are better off not having this disclosed.
Yes, I had to check they were not still doing this. I don’t believe they are allowed to charge a higher fee on iOS, or is there some loophole?
Customers ought to know, but whether companies are compelled to tell them is problematic - just see the prices of fuel or snacks at motorway service stations - which reflect a local monopoly, not the true cost. Ultimately, it seems the answer over time is that nobody is forced to buy Spotify or a WHSmith sandwich. The music you can go and buy in the shops, or from Amazon, Googly, Tidal, Bandcamp. Spotify is like WHSmith at a service station and wants to use the local monopoly as an excuse to put up their prices and push the cost onto the consumer rather than factoring it into their business.
It was never disallowed for developers to charge a higher fee on iOS app store purchases. They just aren’t allowed to make the user aware that they are paying more than required or explain why.
Spotify could make a web app and bypass this whole issue. They chose not to: let them pay the Apple Tax (if you must call it that. Personally, I think it’s just a distribution cost).
The question is, should Spotify be able to tell customers that they are getting a higher fee because they are making the purchase on an iOS device?
To me, it requires massive contortions of logic to believe that customers are better off not having this disclosed.