Petteri Pyyny
15 Sep 2004 16:10
British consumer group Consumers' Association has raised its voice over the iTunes' pricing in the United Kingdom. Most notably, its anger is aimed towards the different pricing model Apple uses for its online music store in European countries. In other European countries where iTunes operates (France, Germany), a downloaded song from iTunes costs €0.99 -- equivalent of appx. £0.67 -- while Brits pay £0.79 per song.
Consumers' Association says that iTunes pricing model could be against European Union rules and asks Apple to stop "ripping off" British consumers. But Apple defended its UK pricing by stating that "underlying economic model in each country has an impact on how we price our track downloads. ... We believe the real comparison to be made is with the price of other track downloads in the UK."
Then again, CD and DVD prices vary wildly between countries -- just like average salaries, rental prices, car prices, etc do.
Source: BBC