BRUSSELS—Antitrust authorities in Europe are examining Apple Inc.’s agreements with record labels as the California company prepares to launch a subscription music-streaming service that analysts say could become the biggest in the world, overtaking players such as Spotify AB.
The European Commission, the region’s top competition regulator, has sent questionnaires to several record labels seeking information about their dealings with Apple, two people familiar with the matter said Thursday. The regulator is interested in the companies’ deals and correspondence with Apple, as well as their dealings with other music-streaming services, one of the people said.
The decision to send questionnaires is an early step in the European Union’s antitrust process and doesn’t mean a formal investigation will be opened. If EU regulators do press ahead with formal charges, they could result in fines or demands that Apple change its behavior.
Apple and the European Commission both declined to comment.
The New York Post reported Wednesday that the EU was scrutinizing Apple’s dealings with record labels.
Apple bought the $ 10-a-month subscription streaming service Beats Music last year as part of a $ 3 billion acquisition that included headphone maker Beats Electronics.
The deal, Apple’s largest ever, offered it a way to bolster its iTunes music offerings as album downloads—a business that Apple pioneered—started to slow in the face of streaming services such as Spotify and Pandora.
Apple is rebuilding Beats Music and plans to relaunch it later this year as part of iTunes.
In a report published Wednesday, Midia Research, a technology analysis firm, found that about one-fifth of 1,000 Americans it surveyed would subscribe to an Apple music-streaming service for $ 7.99 a month.
“If 15% of Apple’s entire 500m iTunes users adopted [the new streaming service], the total number of subscribers globally would grow by 75 million,” the report said.
Spotify is currently the biggest subscription music-streaming service, with 15 million paying subscribers and a further 45 million free users.
EU regulators have separately been investigating Apple’s tax arrangements in Ireland.
Write to Tom Fairless at tom.fairless@wsj.com
European Commission Reviewing Apple's Dealings with Record Labels - Wall Street Journal
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