It appears that the European Union’s Commissioner for Consumer Protection Meglena Kuneva may have spoken a bit hastily the other day when she said that “something has to change” about Apple’s iTunes-iPod integration. Speaking yesterday, Kuneva referred to her earlier comments as opening a dialogue.
“I would like, really, to start this debate. What is best to develop this market and to have more consumers enjoying this really very important, very modern way of downloading and enjoying the music?” she said of Apple’s iTunes.She was also quick to avoid analogies between Apple’s situation and another high-profile suit brought by the EU:
“Somebody drew the comparison with Microsoft. No, this is not the case because the share of the market of Apple is really not a big one so there is not any reason to talk about infringement,” Kuneva said.The EU’s Competition Commissioner, Neelie Kroes, has reputedly found no reason to bring any action against Apple, so for now, it appears that such initiatives are solely the domain of
Update: As Chris points out below, Norway is not actually in the European Union. Whoopsie. You learn something new every day.
[via Macworld UK]
Just a heads up - Norway is not a member of the EU. It resides on the European continent, but is not part of the European Union. But you are correct, some members of the EU are taking their independent aim at Apple (France and Germany, from memory, being the largest.)
HAHA when i saw the scratched EU member, and then countries like norway, i just thought u were making fun of norway for NOT being part of the european union...
Yea, 80% of the market isn't that big. But the issue of DRM again is not about Apple but the record labels. That's something that norway can't get through there thick skulls. Apple can't change the DRM without the record labels permission and they don't want to change DRM so there you go.