Special merit prizes for Norwegian iTunes campaign

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The Norwegian Consumer struggle with unfair commercial practices carried out by online traders in general, and iTunes in particular, today received a special merit prizes for the iTunes campaign.

Øyvind Herseth Kaldestad Kommunikasjonsrådgiver forbrukerpolitikk, 10.03.2008 12:54

The European Commission, together with the ECCs in the Member States, organised an EU-wide competition to find the best public consumer campaign of the year. Finland won campaign of the year with "Galactor and the Code-breakers", a web-based game aimed at educating teens and young adults about consumer rights and responsibilities, particularly concerning internet and mobile shopping.

- This is a nice appreciation of our work, and we are proud of the fact that Consumer Commissioner Meglena Kuneva emphasised our campaign in particular, says the Norwegian ombudsman Bjørn Erik Thon and director Erik Lund-Isaksen, the Consumer Council of Norway.

Contract terms and interoperability

There where two main problems being tackled by the iTunes-campaign:

Firstly, online traders, such as iTunes Music Store, use standard contract terms, which are unfair to consumers and clearly in breach of fundamental Norwegian and European consumer rights.

Secondly, the lack of interoperability between digital players and digital content due to the use of technical protection measures (DRM), for instance iTunes’ Fairplay, means that consumers who buy music from Apple’s iTunes Music Store can only use Apple’s iPod and consequently are being deprived from the benefits of competition.

Successful campaign

In January 2006, the Consumer Council of Norway filed a complaint to the Norwegian Consumer Ombudsman regarding unfair commercial practices carried out by online traders in general and iTunes in particular.

In parallel with this official complaint, the Consumer Council ran a successful campaign highlighting the identified problems. Meanwhile, Norway's Consumer Ombudsman started legal discussions with iTunes throughout 2006 and 2007.

The Consumer Council’s and the Ombudsman’s campaign received worldwide media coverage and obtained the support of the German, French and Finnish consumer organisations, which also began campaigns on this issue.

As a result of the campaign, iTunes amended their contract terms and at the same time the four largest record companies decided to sell digital music without DRM, thus enabling the iTunes Music Store to do the same for a significant proportion of their sales. The campaign raised awareness among industry, consumers, media and authorities with regard to consumer rights in digital shopping.

Further goals

The iTunes campaign has marked a start for consumer organisations and public authorities to bring a stop to companies misleading consumers into signing away legal rights.

Further, one goal will be to make sure that companies have consumer confidence as a key factor when formulating their End User License Agreements (EULAs). Another will be to have the Commission to include digital contracts and licence agreements through its review of the Consumer Acquis.

For more information, please contact:

Consumer Ombudsman Bjørn Erik Thon, tlf +47 99 00 50 90 Deputy director Benedicte Bergseng Mælan, Consumer Council, +47 40 87 92 62