The U.S. Department of Justice is looking into Apple ’s practice in the realm of music sales , with an eye to anticompetitive demeanor , concord toa report inThe New York Times .
At question are whether or not the company has used its position as the largest vendor of music to prevent music label from make good deal with other retail merchant , such as Amazon . Billboard reported earlier this calendar month that Apple is now responsible for for 26.7 percentage of music sale , with retail giant Wal - mart in a distant 2nd topographic point with 12.5 per centum . Online , the company obligate an even larger stranglehold , with 69 percent of gross sales , topping Amazon ’s second - place 8 percent .
One of the specific alleged incidents , firstreported by Billboard in March , involved Apple congresswoman asking music tag not to unite an Amazon furtherance that would have fancy music exclusively useable on that website ’s Daily Deal plane section before it was on cut-rate sale elsewhere . The report further says that Apple pull out marketing support on iTunes for those songs that participate in Amazon ’s quite a little .
Apple ’s faced antitrust head consider to iTunes before . In 2008 , the European Commission concluded an antitrust investigation into pricing on iTunes after Apple fit to equalize costs throughout Europe .
While the DOJ investigation is reputedly in very early days , it may not be the only administration action Apple has on its plate . Earlier this calendar month , the U.S. Federal Trade Commission and the DOJ were debatinginvestigating charges that Apple used anticompetetitive means to obturate developers from creating iPhone apps using tools made by rival Adobe .
