Apple has undoubtedly seen some major growth over the past several years, growth that is now starting placing the company directly in the headlights of government regulators. According to many reports the DOJ and FTC have been keeping an eye on Apple, the App store and their recent stance on mobile advertising. Now it appears as though the Justice Department isexamining Apple’s tactics in the market for digital music.
According to the reports Apple is facing an antitrust inquiry is in the early stages involving the company's use of its dominant market position to persuade music labels to refuse to give online retailer Amazon.com exclusive access to music about to be released.
In March, Billboard magazine reported that Amazon was asking music labels to give it the exclusive right to sell certain forthcoming songs for one day before they went on sale more widely. In exchange, Amazon promised to include those songs in a promotion called the “MP3 Daily Deal” on its Web site.
The magazine reported that representatives of Apple’s iTunes music service were asking the labels not to participate in Amazon’s promotion, adding that Apple punished those that did by withdrawing marketing support for those songs on iTunes.
Apple has been the top music retailer in the US since early 2008, now holding as much as a 69 percent market share. Amazon, the second largest music retailer only holds and 8 percent share. This dominant position in the market is undoubtedly the reason why the DoJ has taken a special interest in the company's tactics.
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