Reuters reports EU consumer chief Meglena Kuneva has criticized Apple’s practice of bundling of its iPod music players and its iTunes online music store. Reuters, which picked up the story from an interview published in the German weekly magazine Focus, quoted Kuneva as saying: “Do you think it’s fine that a CD plays in all CD players but that an iTunes song only plays in an iPod? I don’t. Something has to change.”
A Commission spokeswoman in Brussels confirmed Kuneva’s comment in the magazine but stressed it represented the commissioner’s personal views, not those of the Commission. Consumer rights organizations from Germany, France, Finland and Norway have also criticized Apple’s unwillingness to open up iTunes. The Norwegian consumer ombudsman has set a deadline of October 1 for Apple to make its Fairplay DRM codes available to other companies, or face possible closure.
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—Norway Forces Apple To Open Up iTunes