Apple backtracks on iTunes UK price promise

Exchange rates blames as download costs will not see cuts

16 July 2008 10:08 GMT / By Amy-Mae Elliott

Despite promising it would do so, Apple has u-turned on its decision to cut UK iTunes prices to standardise them with the rest of Europe.

The promise came after a lengthy EC investigation into antitrust or competitions violations across Europe after UK customers were found to be paying more for iTunes downloads than those across the Channel.

It was expected that UK customers would pay the same for their iTunes downloads as those living in other EU countries with the price of an iTunes track expected to fall from 79p to approximately 66p by this summer.

However, Apple now says that changing exchange rates across Europe have actually bought UK prices roughly into line with other EU countries.

"The announcement was that we would match the UK price to that of other lower priced European countries", an Apple spokesperson said. "This is no longer necessary as exchange rates have effectively done it for us."