The European Commission is investigating whether Apple is using anti-competitive iPhone sales tactics and technical restrictions to squeeze out rival smartphone makers from the European market. According to a questionnaire sent last week to several European mobile network operators, the Commission is focusing on distribution terms that might favour Apple by ensuring no rival can secure a better sales deal.
Apple insists that what ever it is doing comply with EU laws, but that is not what mobile operators have been telling the EU. Before a formal probe can be launched, the Commission would need to be confident that Apple was dominant in the EU smartphone market.
Ironically what could save Apple is that it has lost ground to Samsung and can therefore claim that it does not have control of the European market.