Apple online-music antitrust probe

Dick Taffe — Wed, 26 May 2010 21:25:28 +0000

The Justice Department reportedly is in the early stages of an antitrust investigation against Apple Inc., the largest seller of music online, looking into allegations that it used its dominant market position to try to keep music labels from granting exclusive access to content to Amazon.com. Law Professor Keith Hylton, an authority on antitrust law, says it makes sense for Apple to trim market support for certain songs when gets a smaller share of the profits from their sale — but they’re gotten aggressive about it lately.

“There are details that might indicate that they have gone too far in some instances; that remains to be seen. Still, in the long run, consumers generally gain from this activity.”

Contact Keith Hylton, 617-353-8959, knhylton@bu.edu

Wal-Mart pushing electronics

Dick Taffe — Mon, 18 May 2009 19:56:37 +0000

This week Wal-Mart is taking the fight to Best Buy and Amazon (as Circuit City fades away) by upgrading the electronics departments in its 3,500 stores across the country. School of Management marketing Professor Frederic Brunel says it’s a consequence of the ubiquitous nature of easy-to-install/operate consumer electronics.

“This is self-service selling, and thus the champions of self-service will be the winners. Excluding very high-end devices or custom installation solutions, it makes perfect sense that most customer electronics be distributed by mass-discounters such as Wal-Mart, Amazon or Costco.”

Contact Frederic Brunel, 617-353-4609, brunel@bu.edu

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Apple online-music antitrust probe

Wal-Mart pushing electronics