A bizarre thing happens to European patrons of iTunes online music stores. When a European consumer buys music from the iTunes Belgian store, for example, they may only use a credit card issued by the bank with an address in Belgium. Because of this territorial restrictions, consumers are then limited in their freedom to purchase the songs they want, and where they want it bought. As such, the European commission has opened an antitrust probe into Apple's iTunes and the way it sells music online in coordination with major music companies.

The EU Commission does this probe amidst complaints from consumer groups coming from Germany, France, the Netherlands and Nordic countries. Such groups have demanded Apple to change the rules it imposes on its online music stores.

Apple, meanwhile, responds that the company actually wants to operate a single store for all of Europe. But publishers and music labels alike won't have any of this, as they believe Apple's rights are not all-encompassing. Spokesman Steve Dowling says Apple does not believe it did anything to violate the EU law.

Apple has been given a "statement of objections" by the EU Commission. The electronics giant has two months to answer the questions issued in the letter. If found guilty, Apple may be forced to part with as much as 10 percent of its total world income to pay for the EU fines.

The company's had to endure quite a number of red marks on its books recently - sweatshop iPods, hot-running laptops, the lawsuit with Creative, MacStains, malfunctioning logic boards, and their own massive LiON battery recall in the wake of the Sony battery/Dell exploding laptop scandal - but they didn't stop Apple shares from finishing 50 cents higher in the NASDAQ Friday.

Apple spokesman Steve Dowling said that the company will not be feeling any financial impact from the battery recall program - despite the fact the US Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) estimates up to 1.8 million Apple laptop batteries worldwide are covered by the recall. By comparison, Sony expects costs of between $172 million and $258 million to recover bad batteries and ship replacements. And the Japanese government had recently ordered both Sony and Dell to investigate their battery troubles, and report their findings by the end of August - or face a fine.

The battery recall is the latest in a series of "irregularities" either publicly revealed or admitted to by Apple, or accused of by third parties. The latter case is represented by the iPod sweatshop accusations leveled against the Chinese-based factories where iPod manufacturing is outsourced. Cases falling under the former include the battery recall, both of their older models and of certain batches of MacBook Pro batteries, as well as MacBook quality control issues.

But by stock performance it seems that the company's still ticking and kicking. Even if it wasn't the highest in the past year, things are still looking up for Apple.

Then again, we did say long before that any idea of an "Apple customer backlash" could be illusory.

Allegations made against Foxconn's supposed sweatshops/factories for the Apple iPod have already been responded to by Foxconn. UK-based The Mail reported that workers in Foxconn factories most especially those in the company's Longhua factory were operating in harsh conditions. Employees were working 15 hours a day for a salary of $50 per month and they slept in quarters that housed 100 people each.

Now Apple has decided to take matters more seriously and has begun an audit of Foxconn's China plant. According to Apple spokesman Steve Dowling, this thorough audit will look into the allegations of worker abuse. The employees' working and living conditions will be investigated and interviews with managers and employees alike will be conducted to know if Foxconn really complies with wage and overtime regulations. Other areas necessary to determine Foxconn's compliance to Apple's supplier code of conduct will also be investigated.

Apple came like a roaring tiger to Bangalore, and left it like a mouse. Recently, Apple called it quits in India and pulls out its software development and support operations. Apple got cracking in India just this April and hired 30 people for Apple Service India Pvt. Ltd. - their subsidiary.

The decision to leave India was announced on May 29. All the employees were laid-off and were told by Apple officials that "the company is revaluating its operations and has thought of pulling back its Indian operations". Apple then gave the employees a severance package which included two months pay. Apple spokesperson, Steve Dowling said that "we have re-evaluated our plans and have decided to put our planned support centre growth in other countries."

It was a surprise that Apple pulled out even if the Bangalore operation offers low-cost and highly talented people. According to one of the suddenly jobless employees, "it started off with building dreams. We were not given any warning. They just told us the operations would now head back to the US." Another employee added that "on May 15, Apple officials addressed us and were highly appreciative of the workforce and the task it would execute in India. I wonder why they never said anything even then."

Apple initially planned on hiring at least 3,000 tech support workers in India. Steve Jobs was suppose to visit India last April to check out operations there, but the visit was postponed and pushed to September.