14 DAY TRIAL // While all has been quiet when referring to the problems Apple has been having with the European Commission, things are about to heat up again. Despite Apple's deadline ending midnight today, so far the Cupertino Company has not said a peep.
The European Commission's inquiry started on the 3rd of April, in order to look into concerns regarding the pricing of iTunes Store songs. Besides Apple, the commission sent 'statements of objections' listing the charges to unnamed 'major record companies.' All of the parties, including Apple, had two months to respond in writing.
The main concern of the European Commission is that the iTunes Store prohibits users from one country from purchasing and downloading content from the iTunes Store of another country. The differences between the various iTunes Stores are not only in terms of content but also in terms of price.
While Apple is not seen as the cause of the problem, being simply caught up in the remains of a model that was never meant for online distribution, they are nevertheless part of the problem. Jobs might have had to accept the terms of the labels in order to be able to play in this game at all, but that does not mean what Apple is doing is not illegal. There is not much room for maneuvering here. Until the labels decide to change the way they do business, Apple can either keep on going the way they are, or pull out altogether from Europe.
Even if the labels all suddenly decided to change their ways, it would be a long, arduous and expensive process, that while beneficial in the long run, would cause much chaos in the short term. Meanwhile, any complications in the EU would have a negative impact on Apple's business, not just in terms of iTunes Store sales, but also in terms of other ecosystem devices such as iPods and Apple TVs.