• New York Times, San Jose Mercury News, Wednesday, May 26, 2010 10:06 AM

The Justice Department is conducting an antitrust investigation into Apple's conduct in the digital music market, Brad Stone reports, including allegations that it used its dominant market position to persuade music labels to refuse to give Amazon exclusive access to music about to be released.

Billboard reported in March that Amazon was asking music labels for the exclusive right to sell some songs for one day in exchange for including the songs in a promotion called the "MP3 Daily Deal." But representatives from iTunes reportedly pressured the labels to not participate in Amazon's promotion.

"It raises the possibility of potential serious problems down the road for Apple," says Daniel L. Brown, an antitrust lawyer at Sheppard Mullin Richter & Hampton, but he cautions that it's difficult to say exactly how big the problem actually may be without knowing the details of the investigation. Representatives from Apple, Amazon and the Justice Department declined to comment.

Troy Wolverton reports in the San Jose Mercury News, meanwhile, that Apple is "within spitting distance of displacing longtime rival Microsoft as the most valuable tech company in the world."

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