Europe Launches iTunes Investigation
6:12 am, April 3rd, 2007, Leander Kahney
The European Union has launched a price probe into Apple’s iTunes.
European regulators are investigating prices Apple charges for tunes in different countries and is accusing it of restricting choice.
European regulators say Apple and the record companies are violating rules that allow EU citizens to buy goods and services in other memeber countries without restriction. The iTunes store uses credit card details to check country of residence, which is used to determine prices and what music catalog is offered.
“Consumers can only buy music from the iTunes online stores in their country of residence and are therefore restricted in their choice of where to buy music,” EU competition spokesman Jonathan Todd told BBC News.
Apple said it had always wanted to offer a fully pan-European service, but was restricted by the demands of its music partners.
“We were advised by the music labels and publishers that there were certain legal limits to the rights they could grant us,” it said in a statement.
Posted by Leander Kahney in Apple, Music, iTunes | Comment on this article
Finally the government will actually start looking at record company practices and hopefully deal the final coup de grace and rid artists of the abuse they’ve had to accept for decades
d0b3rmann, on April 4th, 2007 at 7:49 pm