If Spotify was called Spatify on the app store, operated by a company that's owned by Spotify, their product wouldn't have to match the pricing of Spotify products on non-apple platforms... and perhaps 'Spatify' could announce a deal that allows Spotify customers to use their product for free.
Then it just comes down to whether Apple follow the rules by the letter, or apply common sense and tell Spotify not to take the piss.
Possibly they could call the sub-company "Spotify Magic" (random example - but something that will show up in search results for "spotify"), or possibly they could just ensure that Spatify gets well enough known for people to search for its new name.
I suspect if any company did this they would put a lot more research and thought into it than I have for my two quick HN comments - I'm really just wondering what, if somebody took this approach, Apple's response would be.
They could but Apple doesn't have to accept them into the App store. They can easily say "these two companies are the same", and enforce the same rules on them.
If Spotify was called Spatify on the app store, operated by a company that's owned by Spotify, their product wouldn't have to match the pricing of Spotify products on non-apple platforms... and perhaps 'Spatify' could announce a deal that allows Spotify customers to use their product for free.
Then it just comes down to whether Apple follow the rules by the letter, or apply common sense and tell Spotify not to take the piss.