Apple News

 

The European Union just put Apple back in its place. The Union which is formed by 27 countries has succeeded in forcing Apple computers to bring down the price per downloaded song in Britain to par with that in other European countries. Apple, now desperate to have the anti-trust case against it dropped is agreeing to the demands of the European Union. Apple was charging 9 cents more for every song downloaded through iTunes in Britain as compared to the rest of the European Union. Such anti-competitive behavior was not taken to very kindly by the E.U.

E.U earlier brought technology giant Microsoft to task and settled for 777 million euros. Last year it had said that Apple had illegally restricted where users could buy music from. Apple has blamed the difference in price on more expensive licensing deals with record companies in the U.K. In return for dropping prices, E.U has agreed to drop the anti-trust case against Apple.  E.U has alleged territorial sales restrictions because users can only buy music from iTunes in the country in which they reside.

This drop in prices is to take effect within six months. Apple also said that the higher prices charged by record labels would have to be taken into consideration and that they would reconsider the existing partnerships with the record companies that do not lower their wholesale prices within the six month period.

Steve Jobs said that it was a step towards an all-Europe market for music and that he hoped all major music labels would take a uniform pricing level all across the continent. The E.U has a history of bringing big technological companies to book and this time Apple joins the list of its conquests.

 

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