Apple Accused of Suppressing iTunes Competitors

Electronic Frontier Foundation, the technology rights group, along with some of Apple’s rivals, are contending that the Cupertino, CA-based company is suppressing competition for its iTunes Store, Reuters reports.

“Everyone agrees Apple achieved its dominance in music downloads and players with good products and marketing, which makes it entirely legal,” the report said. “Apple is not a monopoly because there are hardware competitors such as Microsoft Corp’s Zune… Nonetheless, rivals and a technology rights group are concerned Apple is overly aggressive.”

Several important milestones: Apple is now the number one music retailer (of any kind) in the U.S., and Atlantic Records recently announced that digital sales surpassed physical format sales for the first time ever.

The report goes on to detail some of Apple’s more aggressive tactics. (It even includes a quote from our own Michael Gartenberg, of partner blog MobileDevicesToday fame!) It’s not a clear-cut case, in our opinion, whether or not Apple violated any laws, despite its draconian DRM and control over a proprietary file called iTunesDB.

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