European Commission closes investigations against Apple; one less anchor for AAPL

The European Commission has released a statement announcing that investigations being conducted on Apple practices have been closed. More specifically, the new approval policies of the App Store and the offer of international guarantee in European countries led the EU to finalize the preliminary investigation.

Headquarters of the European Commission (EC)

"Apple's response to our preliminary investigations shows that the Commission can use the competition rules to achieve quick market results with clear benefits for consumers, without the need to open formal procedures," said Joaqun Almunia, Commission vice president a in charge of policy compilio.

Given that fines for anti-competitive practices can reach up to 10% of a company's global turnover (Microsoft and Intel know), this news will sound like a relief to investors who feared harmful results from these investigations. Now that the FCC (on account of Google Voice), Department of Justice (for the agreements that prevented “Poaching”), Anatel (because of post-guarantee assistance) and now the European Commission are happy, is there any government agency to please?

(via Reuters)