Apple has vowed to ease up on British purses, cutting the price for iTunes downloads so UK fees will match those in the rest of Europe. EU regulators have been probing Apple since a consumer group complained about its policies in 2004; the new settlement comes after direct talks between the EU competition commissioner and Apple chief Steve Jobs, BBC reports.
Songs currently cost 79 pence in Britain, while they run 99 euro cents (74 pence) on the Continent. Apple will "reconsider” relationships with any UK record label that doesn't lower prices to meet European levels. Apple also maintains it doesn’t violate competition laws by having separate national iTunes stores instead of a single EU outlet, but copyright issues remain unresolved. (More United Kingdom stories.)