Apple Standardizes iTunes Pricing in the Europe

By Michael Santo
Executive Editor, RealTechNews

To address charges by the European Union that different pricing in the U.K. violates E.U. rules, Apple has announced it will be lowering pricing in its U.K. iTunes Store to match the already standardized pricing in the rest of Europe, but … there’s that word “but” again.

The wording of the press release contains a not-too-subtle warning to music labels in the U.K. Apple has contended higher pricing in the U.K. is a result of record labels charging more for Apple to distribute their music in the U.K.

Apple today announced that within six months it will lower the prices it charges for music on its UK iTunes Store to match the already standardized pricing on iTunes across Europe in Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Germany, Finland, France, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Sweden, Switzerland and Spain. Apple currently must pay some record labels more to distribute their music in the UK than it pays them to distribute the same music elsewhere in Europe. Apple 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.

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

We Say: Note that part about “Apple 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.”

Actually, that’s not that subtle is it? We will see in six months if some labels turn up missing from the European version of iTunes.