EU Opens Competition Probe Into Apple's Bid For Music App Shazam (reuters.com)

EU antitrust regulators opened an investigation on Monday into Apple's bid for British music discovery app Shazam, concerned the deal might give the iPhone maker an unfair advantage in poaching users from its rivals. From a report: Apple announced the deal in December to help it better compete with industry leader Spotify. Shazam lets users identify songs by pointing a smartphone at the audio source. The European Commission said it was concerned about Apple's access to data on Shazam's users who use competing music streaming services in Europe.

Comments

Assume the worst, because Apple.

[Anonymous Coward]

It's not at all like Apple could be getting antsy about Gracenote/CDDB, which in the last decade has been shuffled around various owners as part of three different acquisitions... the same Gracenote/CDDB on which Apple Music, iTunes Match, and Genius all, rely. It's not at all like Apple has made a point of securing alternate vendors (And in this space, it's Gracenote, Shazam, and pretty much nobody else. So if Gracenote is being worrisome, OBVIOUSLY you look to Shazam.) in similar situations in the past.

Nope. No way is there legitimate and non-abusive business logic here. It's Apple being evil. Zero doubt, because it's Apple.