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The European Commission (EC) has closed the enquiry against Apple for charging more UK users than other EU users for downloads of its iTunes music, following the company announcement on 9 January 2008 that it will reduce download prices for UK within 6 months to align them with prices in continental Europe.

A formal investigation had been opened by the EC against Apple after 'Which?', a UK consumer protection organisation, filed a complaint in September 2004 against the company who was applying 20% higher prices to British users than for the other European users. The difference has decreased in time reaching down to 6% and, following discussions between Competition Commissioner Neelie Kroes and Apple chief executive Steve Jobs, the company decided to equalise the prices within a 6-month period.

"The Commission is very much in favour of solutions which allow consumers to benefit from a truly Single Market for music downloads." was the Competition Commissioner Neelie Kroes's statement.

"This is an important step towards a pan-European marketplace for music," said Steve Jobs, Apple's CEO adding: "We hope every major record label will take a pan-European view of pricing".

The issue that remains under discussion is that of the geographical restriction; Apple does not allow purchases on iTunes digital stores from a different country than the residence one. A user from France for instance cannot buy from the German iTunes and Apple verifies the user's residence by means of the credit card during the transaction.

Apple states that this policy is due to the different music copyright laws and rules of the European countries. The EC agrees with this position stating that the contracts between Apple and the major record companies are not in breach of the current EU legislation. "..the fact that the same content is not available on a pan-European basis is not the result of restrictive business practices between Apple and major record companies. Rather it is the result of the existing state of copyright legislation (...) Some record companies choose not to make available their content on a pan-European basis. They do so in full respect of copyright regulation. There is no violation of antitrust regulation" stated Kroes' spokesman Jonathan Todd, at the daily Commission briefing on 8 January 2008.

Unfortunately, the European Commission did not consider the other Apple-related topics revealed by the consumers association in EU: its dominant position in the EU online music market, its DRM-related practises or its lock down problems. But some of these aspects are still under investigation in several European countries by the national Consumer Ombudsman.

European Commission welcomes Apple's announcement to equalise prices for music downloads from iTunes in Europe (9.01.2008)
http://europa.eu/rapid/pressReleasesAction.do?reference=IP/08/22&f...

EU pressure ends iTunes price unbalance (10.01.2008)
http://www.euractiv.com/en/infosociety/eu-pressure-ends-itunes-price-u...

Apple to Standardize iTunes Music Prices Throughout Europe (9.01.2008)
http://www.apple.com/pr/library/2008/01/09itunes.html

iTunes announcement is music to Which?'s ears (9.01.2008)
https://www.which.co.uk/press/press_topics/campaign_news/other_issues/...

EDRi-gram: European Commission investigates Apple's European prices (26.09.2007)
http://www.edri.org/edrigram/number5.18/ec-apple-prices

EDRi-gram: iTunes under continuous attack in Europe (21.01.2007)
http://www.edri.org/edrigram/number5.2/itunes