Friday, June 1,2007 @ 1:25pm
EU: Apple yet to answer antitrust claims
Apple has yet to respond to antitrust allegations that are the result of an inquiry launched April 3rd, according to European Commission officials. Central to the issue is a concern over restrictions that disallow customers of the iTunes Music Store to purchase tracks meant for a country other than the one from which they are connecting to the Internet, causing price differentials between intra-eurozone and extra-eurozone. The European Commission's deadline for a response from Apple is midnight on Monday, June 4th -- two months after the start of the investigation.
Two areas left out of the EU officials' statement on Apple's lack of a response involve DRM concerns and any suggestion that Apple holds an unfair dominant market position.
In a statement to issued at the start of the investigation, Apple officials denied that anything was done in violation of EU law, and claims to have desired a pan-European iTunes store, but was advised by record labels that this would conflict legally with copyrights.