The newspaper said the Department of Justice and the Federal Trade Commission are interested in Apple's terms and conditions, but that the interest is at a preliminary stage and might not develop any further.

Apple announced the terms and conditions for subscription sales through its iTunes Store earlier this week. The company takes a 30 percent slice of all subscription revenue for sales generated through its online store.

Publishers have an option to sell content independent of Apple and keep the entire amount of the subscription, but in that case they are restricted from providing subscription links within their apps that link to non-Apple sites.

The IDG News Service