UK Group Accuses Apple of Overpricing iTunes
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The price of music downloads has been a contentious issue among fans in the UK, who are quick to point out the pricing scheme often means that downloading a full album costs more than buying the CD.
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Apple said it would bring the prices on its iTunes digital music store in Britain in line with those on the Continent to settle an antitrust case.
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The Consumer Association has today complained to the UKâs Office of Fair Trading that downloading tracks from Appleâs iTunes costs UK consumers more than their counterparts in France and Germany.
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Some Macworld Online readers have experienced problems using the UK iTunes Music Store in recent days. Letters received by Macworld confirm multiple instances in which users trying to access
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Apple has taken steps to take ownership of the iTunes.co.uk domain name from its current owner, with the company formally complaining to Nominet, the UK domain name registrar, that it is entitled to the domain.
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The Consumers&#39; Association (CA) has accused Apple of taking too big a bite out of UK music lovers&#39; money. It has asked the Office of Fair (OFT) to investigate the potential breach of competition law.
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A&#160;class-action suit filed against Apple&#160;alleges the company unfairly uses technological restrictions with its iPod line and iTunes Music Store to beat out competitors.The suit, filed in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, is the latest one to accuse Apple of unfair business practices. Apple is facing similar legal actions and scrutiny in the U.S. and Europe.The suit was filed Dec. 31 by Stacie Somers, a resident of San Diego County, California, who bought a 30GB iPod from Target, a retail store. Others who bought an iPod or content from Apple&#39;s iTunes store after Dec. 31, 2003, may join the suit.The suit calls for Apple to forfeit money it earned from the unfair practices and pay the plaintiffs damages.It alleges that Apple has constricted the market by not enabling iPods to play content in the Windows Media Audio (WMA) format, Microsoft&#39;s copy-protection technology. Further, Apple sells songs on the iTunes store with its own copy-protection technology, FairPlay, which is incompatible with music players other than the iPod.The suit contends iPod-owning consumers can only buy music from iTunes, an unlawful tie-in that violates U.S. antitrust laws. Apple could license the WMA format for as little as $0.03 per iPod, or for a total of $800,000 based on Apple&#39;s 2005 iPod sales, the suit reads.The suit may quickly become less relevant as many online music retailers, including Apple, expand their offerings of music free of copy-protection restrictions, also known as DRM (digital rights management).DRM-free tracks offer the advantage of being compatible on a wider range of devices. In May, Apple began selling songs from the label EMI without DRM. Also,&#160;Amazon.com now sells song in MP3 format, and Universal Music Group has tested selling DRM-free music.&#160;
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UK regulator the Office of Fair Trading (OFT) has not initiated an investigation into Apple&#39;s iTunes UK pricing. The Consumer&#39;s Association (CA) yesterday filed a complaint with the OFT, alleging that Apple is &quot;ripping-off&quot; UK music buyers.
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TechWeb - Apple responds to a European Union pricing investigation but wants U.K. labels to cut distribution costs as well.
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(InfoWorld) - Just because three major online music retailers bind their music stores to specific portable players doesn't make it acceptable, a Norwegian consumer group leading the charge against Apple's DRM (digital rights management) policy says. "ITunes Music Store and others are unfair to consumers no matter how many download services follow the proprietary approach," wrote Torgeir Waterhouse, a senior advisor at The Norwegian Consumer Council, in response to a letter written by Apple CEO Steve Jobs andÂ posted on the Apple Web siteÂ on Tuesday. Jobs examined why DRM exists and discusses alternatives to the current set-up in his open response to calls for Apple to allow users to buy songs from the iTunes store and play them on any device. Norway's consumer representative hasÂ threatened legal action against AppleÂ for violating Norwegian law by limiting iTunes customers to playing their music only on iPods. Consumer groups in Denmark, Sweden, Finland, France, and Germany haveÂ joined Norway's complaintÂ against Apple. Jobs points out that Microsoft and Sony also sell music that can only be played on their players, supporting a model that serves customers well with choice and a continuing stream of innovative products. He also suggests that groups like Waterhouse's "redirect their energies" toward convincing the music labels to sell music without DRM, technology that aims to restrict how buyers can copy or use the music. The four biggest record labels forced Apple to employ a proprietary DRM system as a condition of the agreement that allows Apple to sell their music, he said. Ideally, he said, the labels wouldn't require DRM. "This is clearly the best alternative for consumers, and Apple would embrace it in a heartbeat," Jobs wrote. While Waterhouse agrees that the record companies carry some fault for the situation, the iTunes music store and others like it are ultimately responsible. "They're still the company that's selling music to the consumers and are responsible for offering a fair deal according to Norwegian law," he said. Still, with his letter, Jobs' appears to have stirred up some additional pressure on the record labels to change their DRM policies. EMusic.com Inc., which claims to be the second largest music download site, only sells DRM-free music from thousands of independent labels. But the site would like be able to sell music from the four biggest labels. "We are hopeful the remaining four will one day join [the independent labels] by licensing their complete catalogs and reap the benefits of consumer demand," David Pakman, president and CEO of eMusic, wrote in a response to Jobs' letter. Even though Jobs didn't hint that a solution might be impending, Waterhouse appeared to see a glimmer of hope. "If this means that Apple is willing to the kick the lock in technology from the [iTunes/iPod] combination this is really good news -- news that should be put into action as soon as possible to bring us all one important step closer to a well functioning digital society," he wrote.
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A consumer group in the United Kingdom has requested that authorities investigate iTunes' pricing schedule.
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RealNetworks&#39; campaign to grab digital-music market share away from Apple&#39;s iTunes service -- most recently, with cut-rate, 49-cent song downloads -- is raising the ire of Apple loyalists. A petition placed online by Real was swamped with ...
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Apple has been accused of bullying tactics in its battle to force a small UK firm to hand over ownership of the iTunes.co.uk web address.
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Consumer watchdog the Consumers&#39; Association (CA) has today written to the UK office of Fair Trading (OFT), complaining that UK digital music shoppers are being ripped-off.
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The OFT refers Apple's iTunes to the European Commission on the grounds that it over-charges UK customers.
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European Union consumer chief Meglena Kuneva has hit out at Apple Inc.'s bundling of its popular iPod music players and its iTunes online music store, according to German weekly magazine Focus.
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A user of Apple's iTunes services sues the firm saying it is unfair that he can only use an iPod to play songs.