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ARTICLE · 05 APRIL 2007

A Hard Day’s Right?

MacRoberts
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The European Union has just launched an inquiry into whether Apple’s famous online music store, iTunes, falls foul of competition laws by way of its territorial sales restrictions. UK consumer group <I>Which? </I>complained that British residents were paying more to download songs than any other EU nationals back in 2005 and is said to be pleased with news of the inquiry. Downloading a track from iTunes costs 79p in the UK, compared to 72p in Denmark and only 66p in France, Belgium and Germany.

United KingdomAntitrust/Competition Law
David Flint
David Flint
Valerie Surgenor
Valerie Surgenor
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The European Union has just launched an inquiry into whether Apple’s famous online music store, iTunes, falls foul of competition laws by way of its territorial sales restrictions. UK consumer group Which? complained that British residents were paying more to download songs than any other EU nationals back in 2005 and is said to be pleased with news of the inquiry. Downloading a track from iTunes costs 79p in the UK, compared to 72p in Denmark and only 66p in France, Belgium and Germany.

The confidential statement of objections sent to Apple is the first stage in formal proceedings. Apple is not accused of occupying a dominant market position but of operating restrictive business practices. According to the Commission, iTunes uses customers’ credit card details to determine their country of residence and then restricts them to buying tracks from that country’s iTunes website. So, someone with a credit card issued by a branch of a bank in the UK can only buy songs from the UK iTunes

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