U.S. authorities investigating whether the tactics used by Apple to remain a world leader in Internet music sales involved any abuse of its dominant position, reports today, “The New York Times.”
The New York daily added that the Department of Justice U.S. investigates Apple to know whether he tried to prevent certain exclusive agreements of Amazon, its largest competitor in this sector.
The investigation, is in a preliminary stage and might stay there, has led the Justice Department staff to ask several record companies to clarify whether Apple has used practices that could violate the rules of free competition.
Specifically, it investigates whether Apple pressured record companies not to participate in the campaign of Amazon “MP3 Daily Deal” with the company that distributes a day before its official release certain songs, and if threatened to criminalize the distribution of their products in their online store, iTunes.
The iTunes store, was established in 2003, and became the largest U.S. online music store, with a market share of almost 70% and more than 10,000 million songs sold, thanks largely to its popular iPod, and iPhone iTouch, from which users can buy directly from iTunes.
Amazon is the second largest online music store in this country but only has a market share of 8%, giving Apple a dominant position which could be abused, the newspaper said, without citing its sources. Worldwide, iTunes, which also sells applications, movies, television programs and even electronic books, also is the largest online music store, with a market share of 26.7%, according to the NPD Group audit.
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