Apple to lower its UK iTunes prices.

   Apple will lower the prices it charges UK customers for iTunes downloads to bring them into line with Europe, it announced yesterday.

   The technology giant currently charges 79p per download in the UK compared with 99 cents (74p) on the Continent.

   Apple's pledge to cut UK prices within six months follows a European Commission probe into alleged overpricing by the company.

   But the Commission said that its anti trust proceedings found no evidence of agreements between Apple and record labels over the way iTunes was run.

   The Commission welcomed Apple's decision to lower UK prices and said no further action was necessary.

   Apple blamed the record labels for its higher UK prices, saying some of them charged it more to distribute music in the UK than elsewhere in Europe. The firm threatened to "reconsider its continuing relationship in the UK" with any record labels which do not bring their UK prices Apple has lowered the cost of music downloaded from iTunes into line with Europe within six months.

   Apple chief executive Steve Jobs said: "This is an important step towards a pan-European marketplace for music.

   "We hope every major record label will take a pan-European view of pricing," he added.

   The investigation into Apple was sparked by consumer group Which? complaining that UK customers were being charged substantially more for iTunes downloads.

   Launching the probe last April, the Commission alleged that agreements between Apple and major record companies violated EC Treaty rules which ban restrictive business practices.

Apple would have faced a multimillion-pound fine if it had been found in breach of the rules.

But the Commission unearthed no evidence of any such agreements between Apple and the record companies regarding the iTunes online music store.

   Apple structures its iTunes store in a way that takes country-specific copyright laws into account, the Commission found.

   "Consequently, the Commission does not intend to take further action in this case," it said in a statement. Competition Commissioner Neelie Kroes welcomed Apple's decision to equalise its prices, saying: "The Commission is very much in favour of solutions which allow consum ers to benefit from a truly single market for music downloads."

   Apple verifies its customers' country of residence via their credit card details. They can only buy iTunes from the web site for that country.

   Depending on currency conversion rates, iTunes downloads in the UK have been nearly 10 per cent more expensive than elsewhere in the eurozone.

   The new prices for the UK iTunes Store will match standardised pricing already in place in Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Germany, Finland, France, Greece, Ire land, Italy, Luxembourg, The Nether lands, Norway, Portugal, Sweden, Switzerland and Spain.

  The Commission is very much in favour of solutions which allow consumers to benefit from a truly single market for music downloads.