Slashdot Mirror
ITunes Overcharging in the UK
KennyMillar writes "The BBC is reporting that the OFT (Office of Fair Trading) has ruled that Apple is overcharging for iTunes downloads in the UK. They have referred the case to the European Commission for a ruling. One important note is that UK iTunes customers cannot buy from the French or German iTunes Stores, and this goes against European Freedom of Trade rules. A spokesman from OD2 agreed that people in the UK should not be charged more than customers in the Eurozone. I've emailed Apple asking for 20% refund on all my downloads, but I won't hold my breath!"
Wouldn't the same principles forbid use of CSS to charge different prices for DVDs in different regions?
No, because there's only a single DVD region for the EU (and even other countries outside the EU, like Switzerland).
The iTunes case is about different prices inside the EU. A German guy is free to buy a car in Spain. A UK resident can't buy a song from the French iTMS. That's likely to be illegal.
England is not the UK. In fact the labour governement is still 'considering' the Euro, but given that Gordon Brown (not English), likely the next Prime Minister, is hostile to it a switch doesn't look likely in the short term. Eventually I imagine they'll have to switch over to the Euro - it's certainly quite handy for frequent travellers within the EU and for businesses.
The prices have never been equivalent to the exchange rates (not even close). The UK store has consistently been more expensive. This is probably because the record companies think they can get away with it (as they do with CDs), not because of exchange rate difficulties.
It's really a bit of a farce that they're forced to have different stores in different countries anyway. Apple would probably prefer to just have one store and let the user change their language/music preferences, but the music companies have too much to lose from allowing a global marketplace in their IP, so they're trying to hold out as long as possible.
As with regional DVD encoding it'll probably die a quiet death somewhere between 2010 and 2020.