Apple forced to lower price of music in UK iTunes store

By Andrew Lim on 09 January 2008, 2:44pm

According to an Apple statement sent out today, Apple will equalise the price of music on its iTunes Stores across Europe within the next six months.

It seems the peeps at Which? weren't satisfied that us Brits were being charged more for music in iTunes than the rest of Europe, so they filed a formal complaint with the UK's Office of Fair Trading, which then contacted the European Commission, which started antitrust proceedings. Apple's decision has satisfied the EC, which will take no further action.

At the moment you have to pay 79p per track in the UK iTunes Store, while the rest of Europe only pays 99 euro cents (74p). So we're not talking huge savings, but it's still important that companies take some notice that we won't be ripped off by 'rounding up'. EC competition commissioner Neelie Kroes commented, "The Commission is very much in favour of solutions which allow consumers to benefit from a truly Single Market for music downloads."

In the press release, Apple states that it "will reconsider its continuing relationship in the UK with any record label that does not lower its wholesale prices in the UK to the pan-European level within six months". - Andrew Lim