Apple Inc announced that it will change its European pricing scheme to appease the European Commission. Currently, in the U.K. iTunes charges 79 pence ($1.55) for each song, compared with 99 cents ($1.45) in the euro area of the European Union.

"This is an important step towards a pan-European marketplace for music," Apple Chief Executive Officer Steve Jobs said in an e-mailed statement today. "We hope every major record label will take a pan-European view of pricing."

The European Union on Wednesday also welcomed the decision to harmonize the price of music downloads from its European online iTunes stores in a bid to avoid getting into trouble with the bloc's antitrust rules. Apple's decision follows the opening of an investigation by the EU's executive, the European Commission, after it received a formal complaint from a British consumer protection organization.

"The Commission is very much in favour of solutions which allow consumers to benefit from a truly single market for music downloads," Europe's Competition Commissioner Neelie Kroes said in a statement.

The Commission also cleared the record industry of collusion in setting prices for downloads, clarifying that it is not agreements between Apple and the major record companies that determine how the iTunes store is organized in Europe. The European regulator thus officially announced that it will not take any further action in this case.

ITunes songs are also slightly more expensive in Denmark but slightly cheaper in Sweden. European customers are currently restricted to buying iTunes songs from online stores in their country of residency, and a buyer's residency status is checked by Apple through his or her credit card details.

The European Commission, the Union’s antitrust regulator, previously said in a statement released in April 2007 that Apple and the world's four largest music companies illegitimately control where iTunes users can buy songs by setting higher prices in some countries.