Apple chief executive Steve Jobs said that he hoped that labels would change their practices. "This is an important step towards a pan-European marketplace for music,” said Jobs. “We hope every major record label will take a pan-European view of pricing”.
The European Commission has been conducting antitrust enquiries into Apple and the iTunes store. It said that Apple is responsible for its own iTunes shop structure.
"The Commission’s antitrust proceedings further allowed the Commission to clarify that there is no agreement between Apple and the major record companies regarding how the iTunes store is organised in Europe," said a Commission statement. "Rather, the structure of the iTunes store is chosen by Apple to take into account the country-specific aspects of copyright laws."
The Commission did recognise, though, that some music company licences and practices do make it difficult for Apple to run a pan-European store. Even with the price changes, consumers will only be able to buy music from the part of iTunes designed for their country.
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