The European Union earlier today announced that Apple has agreed to bring the prices of songs on the British version of the iTunes Store more in line with the iTunes Store prices of other European nations. Apple charges £0.79 per iTunes track in Great Britain and €0.99 in the rest of Europe. At the current conversion rates, this means that the English customers have to pay around five pence extra for each track they buy. It may not sound like much to you or me, but the costs do add up.
The British Consumers’ Association had filed a complaint about Apple and their pricing policies in England, with respect to the rest of Europe, with the EU in 2004 (yes, that’s three years ago). After Apple assured the EU regulators that it would take steps to make sure that the British customers pay the same rates as the consumers in the rest of Europe, they closed the case today.
Apple has also made it clear that the only thing stopping them from having a single store for the whole of Europe (which would fix the problem once and for all) is, you guessed it, the set of “stringent copyright restrictions” that the record labels have imposed on them. That doesn’t surprise us at all. All those big mustachioed business honchos are more afraid of people stealing their music than I am of flying cockroaches and that’s saying something.
Remember we also have Scotland, Ireland and Wales, what is this talking about Britain, then spoiling it all by saying "English customers"
A Scouser living on an Island in Scotland