Apple Defends iTunes Pricing in Europe

At the same time Apple was celebrating the iPhone's launch in Germany, elsewhere the company was defending its price structure for iTunes.

The European Commission claims that the record labels are forcing iTunes to not allow European residents to purchase music from stores in other countries in the EU. This apparently runs afoul of the bloc's laws, and the Commission isn't happy about it.

Apple CEO Steve Jobs touched on the subject briefly in Berlin, where he defended the company's method of pricing within the EU and said he thought "anybody in Europe should buy off any store."

Lawyers for the Cupertino company told the EC that there was nothing in at least one of the company's contracts with labels that prevented cross-country sales, or to have music be set at a higher price in places such as Britain, where cost of living and income are both much higher in comparison to other countries, according to Reuters sources.

That same source said that Apple had to make tough decisions on how to sell music in Britain, because both the laws and the market is vastly different and more complex than that of the United States.

For example, in Britain the price of songs are 79 pence, but in the rest of Europe songs are 99 euro cents. In US dollars, Brits pay $1.58 per song, while their European neighbors only pay the eqivalent of $1.38. It is this discrepancy that has EU officials upset.

The EC had no immediate public comment on the discussions.