EU Launches Antitrust Probe Into iTunes

Macthorpe writes "ABC News is reporting that the EU has started an antitrust probe into the way that Apple sells music on iTunes. As you can only purchase from the store of the country where your credit or debit card is registered, the price differences and availability differences between iTunes stores for different EU countries constitute a violation of EU competition laws which forbid territorial sales restrictions.'Apple spokesman Steve Dowling said Monday the company wanted to operate a single store for all of Europe, but music labels and publishers said there were limits to the rights that could they could grant to Apple. "We don't believe Apple did anything to violate EU law," he said. "We will continue to work with the EU to resolve this matter."'"

Comments

Re:DVD zoning

[Alranor]

Unless i'm mistaken, all of the EU falls under the same regional zone as far as DVDs are concerned, and thus they won't fall foul of this law as it only regulates sales within the EU.

But, RoughlyDrafted says they're not!

[mattgreen]

Surely the EU should read some fair and unbiased sites like RoughlyDrafted to learn that it most certainly is NOT a monopoly! And they should realize the RIAA is extremely evil!

(Okay, so the last sentence I can't say without chuckling at the blatant karma whore, that I've seen in this thread a few times.)

Re:EU Fines

[Fred_A]

"Thank god that they're protecting the consumer from price fixing" yet the people waiting for the product just seem peeved that it's delayed. And the companies that are trying to do business don't like that one bit either.

Consumer (holding credit card in trembling hands) : Oooh ooh, wanna shiny new toy, got shakes and hot flashes and cold sweat
Company : We'd love to rip you off but big bad EU won't let us
Both : Waaaaaahhh !