In Piper post Reuters was quoting the WSJ, and going to the article itself we find some interesting information. I'm sorry the facts keep getting in the critics way:
Quote:
Antitrust officials in the U.S. and abroad may be hard-pressed to conclude that Apple's 30% commission is excessive, antitrust experts said, partly because it will be difficult to determine a benchmark commission rate for digital subscriptions. "The European Commission has been reluctant in the past to second-guess pricing as it is a complex exercise, and the commission does not want to become a price regulator," said Damien Geradin, a professor of competition law at Tilburg University in the Netherlands.
To make a case against Apple, antitrust enforcers would have to show that Apple has market power and is abusing it. That depends on how they define a market. Apple's iPhone is the phone of choice for many affluent consumers, but it has only a 16% share of smartphone sales and a sliver of the broader mobile-phone market.
Apple accounts for about three-quarters of world-wide tablet-computer sales, but that share could fall fast as a slate of competitors become available.
Antitrust enforcers would also have to determine to what extent media companies need to be on Apple devices, or whether other alternatives are available. Making that determination won't be easy in a fast-changing market.
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http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000...#ixzz1EI6p6HMu