European consumer protection authorities have increasingly placed Apple on the defensive over iTunes incompatibility concerns.
Now, the pressure is intensifying a bit more. Just recently, EU Consumer Protection Commissioner Meglena Kuneva lashed out against Apple, criticizing the company for relying on proprietary formats. “Is it okay that a CD plays on every CD player, but that an iTunes download only plays on an iPod?” Kuneva questioned in a recent interview with German magazine Focus. “I don’t think so. Something has to change.” The comments follow stepped-up compatibility demands from a number of European countries, including Norway, Sweden, Denmark, France, Finland, and Germany. Earlier this year, Norway demanded an interoperability solution by October, and other countries expressed a united front on the matter.
That action is part of a steadily escalating situation, one that is putting Apple in an uncomfortable position. France, the most aggressive on the matter, even won passage of an interoperability measure in August of last year. But implementation weeds are still being sorted through by regulators, and some have pointed to a possible exit by Apple if certain demands are made. Meanwhile, Steve Jobs shrewdly issued an open letter request for labels to lift DRM restrictions in February, a move that would essentially eliminate the current European sticking points. That deftly places the pressure on major labels, a group that carries a less-than-stellar image among EU regulators. Aside from EMI, majors have mostly expressed resistance to the Jobs request, part of a continued interoperability quagmire.