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For six years, the Internet Nexus served as my technology blog, but I've since started blogging at the SuperSite Blog instead. If you're looking for the blog, please head there. --Paul

Tuesday, April 03, 2007

EU Reveals Apple Antitrust Investigation

Me, in WinInfo:

Today, the European Union (EU) announced it was investigating Apple for antitrust violations related to the pricing of music sold via its iTunes Store service. The European Commission (EC) has sent a statement of objections to Apple, spelling out how the company and the four major recording companies who supply it with music are violating EU antitrust laws.

At issue is the way Apple charges different prices in iTunes Store for the same content in different countries. This, the EU says, unfairly penalizes those consumers in countries where the content is more expensive.

My take on this is simple: This is no big deal. If the EU were to investigate Apple's tying of the iPod and iTunes and its effect on the company both acquiring and maintaining a monopoly in the digital music space--which, frankly, you could make a case for--then we'd have a Microsoft-style legal mess on our hands. But this does seem to be the record companies' problem, not Apple's.

Labels: Apple, Digital media, iPod, iTunes

[ Posted at 10:40 AM | Permalink ]