BEIJING, March 12 (Xinhuanet) -- European pressure on Apple to open up its iPod-iTunes ecosystem is growing, as EU Commissioner for Consumer Protection Meglena Kuneva has spoken out against the tie-in between the iPod and Apple's iTunes Store, according medai reports Monday.

Apple CEO Steve Jobs pulls the iPod nano out of his jeans pocket after introducing it at an event in San Francisco, California in this September 7, 2005. European Union consumer chief Meglena Kuneva has hit out at Apple Inc.'s bundling of its popular iPod music players and its iTunes online music store, according to German weekly magazine Focus.(File Photo) Photo Gallery>>>

    Speaking on the topic of Digital Rights Management(DRM), Kuneva said to the magazine Focus that she believes consumers shouldn't be locked into the iPod by music they purchase from Apple's iTunes Store. 

    Kuneva also said that the industry needs competitive pricing and uniform sales contracts, in addition to a "cooling-off" period during which consumers could "return" downloaded music.

    In January this year, the Norwegian government declared iTunes illegal and gave Apple until Oct. 1 to let competitor devices play songs downloaded from the iTunes music store. Also, consumer rights groups in Finland, France and Germany filed similar complaints and issued a joint statement with their counterparts in Norway criticizing Apple.

    The problems for Apple in Europe have begun last year when France threatened to pass a law forcing the company to make iTunes tracks compatible with all devices. After Apple called the law state-sponsored piracy and threatened to close its iTunes store in France, the French senate softened the law. The French senate has added language to the bill so that a company that agrees to provide its proprietary codes to rivals will receive a license fee along with guarantees that the transfer of information will not weaken its copyright protection measures.

    iTunes Store was launched initially to promote iPod player, but in three years Apple has managed to transform into the biggest online music download service. In February 2006, Apple celebrated the 1 billionth download from iTunes.

    According to Nielsen NetRatings, a provider of Internet media and market research, traffic to Apple's iTunes Web site and use of the iTunes application have spectacularly increased in the last two years, reaching nearly 14 percent of the active Internet population.

    Last month in an open letter, Steve Jobs, Apple CEO, expressed his opinion about the issues in Europe.

    "Those unhappy with the current situation should redirect their energies towards persuading the music companies to sell their music DRM-free. For Europeans, two and a half of the big four music companies are located right in their backyard. The largest, Universal, is 100 percent owned by Vivendi, a French company. EMI is a British company, and Sony BMG is 50 percent owned by Bertelsmann, a German company. Convincing them to license their music to Apple and others DRM-free will create a truly interoperable music marketplace. Apple will embrace this wholeheartedly," wrote Jobs.

    (Agencies)