News 

The OFT's investigation was prompted by a complaint from Which? (formerly the Consumers' Association), which pointed out that downloads from iTMS in the UK are more expensive than from the German and French stores.

Which? has backed the decision to defer to the EC. Its principal policy adviser, Phil Evans, said, UK consumers are getting a raw deal from Apple. The online music market is a huge growth area; the Single Market should work the same in this market as in others. We're campaigning for free movement of goods and services in Europe and we'll take on any company, or group of companies, that seek to carve up the market to their benefit.'

Apple 'declines to comment at present'. At the time of the original complaint the company said, ''The underlying economic model in each country has an impact on how we price our track downloads. That's not unusual, look at the price of CDs in the US versus the UK. We believe the real comparison to be made is with the price of other track downloads in the UK.'

iTunes is as cheap as, or cheaper than, competing UK services such as Napster, MSN Music and OD2-based stores.