Back in March, we wrote about reports that Apple had gone around and pressured various record labels to stop working with Amazon on its “MP3 Daily Deal” promotion. The reports suggested that Apple had told the labels that it would not promote any releases that were featured as Amazon’s Daily Deal. As we noted at the time, this sounded like a classic “restraint of trade” situation that the government tends to frown upon, especially when performed by what might be considered the dominant player in the market. I’m not sure I believe it should be an antitrust issue, but it certainly is the kind of thing that the government gets upset about.
So it should come as little surprise at all to find out, indeed, that the Justice Department is now looking into this. Of course, it’s early, and nothing may come of it, but you would still think that Apple would be a bit more careful than blatantly telling partners not to work with a competitor. Or does Steve Jobs hope that his powers of persuasion will wow over the Feds as well?
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