The AP reports that the European Commission has launched an antitrust probe into iTunes. According to the article a single track costs $1.56 in the UK, $1.44 in Denmark and $1.32 in Germany and Belgium, while at the same time users are restricted to the iTunes store of their country of origin. "Consumers are thus restricted in their choice of where to buy music and consequently what music is available, and at what price," the commission said in its statement. Apple's spokesman said it was prevented from creating a single European store by its contracts with music labels and publishers and the rights they negotiated with them. This investigation is apparently separate from the whole ongoing Apple/DRM foofaraw.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
4-03-2007 @ 5:18PM
mmonquito said...
I will now read TUAW forever because Erica said "fooferaw." Well, at least until she stops writing for them. (American Heritage says "origin unknown" - I was thinking Pennsylvania Dutch?)
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4-03-2007 @ 5:21PM
Marky said...
About time too! The single market was created a long time ago and for this farce to have been forced upon us by mainly (but not completely) American record and film companies eager to keep the European market split up to maximise profit for themselves is simply archaic.
It's wrong that I can buy a CD from a German website and have it delivered within a couple of days to anywhere else in the Union and yet prevented from buying the same CD from the German iTunes site.
Hopefully this can be sorted fast. The average time for anti-trust investigations by the Commission is 6 weeks and this one must be fairly obvious in any practical example.
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4-03-2007 @ 8:41PM
peter said...
Don't like it don't buy it.
Hay Euro's start your own Apple i-tunes.
I know
You could call it
Sauerkraut Inc
and the Music service i-Oompah
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4-04-2007 @ 4:51AM
Matt Grover said...
blah blah blah blah
It seems the EU simply just don't like Apple, eg: lets pick a current CD Album from Amazon.com, co.uk and .de
Avril Lavigne - The Best Damn Thing (not saying anything, just know it's a new one ;)
Amazon.com $11.99 (RRP $18.98)
Amazon.co.uk £8.98 or $17.75 (xe.com)
Amazon.de 15,97 Euro or $21.32 (xe.com)
Oh no, it's more expensive than the US store?!? Funny that eh? it's called EXCHANGE RATES!
Someone tell the EU to lay off Apple and focus their energies into important matters for a change >:/
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4-04-2007 @ 9:37AM
Rich said...
The EU is investigating this because at the moment a user in the UK is blocked from buying songs from the French iTunes store (which is about 20p cheaper). EU law specifies that there should be a common market within the EU, and companies should not refuse to sell something to somebody because of their address.
It's comparable to there being an iTunes store for each US State, and a Californian user not being able to buy from the Texan store because their address is in Texas.
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4-04-2007 @ 9:38AM
Richard Thomas said...
Oops, that last bit should read:
"It's comparable to there being an iTunes store for each US State, and a Californian user not being able to buy from the Texan store because their address is in *California*."
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