Falling Pound brings iTunes UK into line with rest of EU

[HarryT]

An interesting story today from The Register.

Apple no longer needs to lower the price of songs on iTunes UK in order to achieve pricing parity with the rest of Europe - fluctuating exchange rates have done the job for it.

Back in January, Apple pledged to unify the cost of dowloads across Europe in order to head off the possibility that it might be forced to do so by European Commission single-market regulators.

At the time, the Mac maker said it would put such a scheme in place within six months.

Half a year on, and Apple admitted today the change has already been made - but by the currency markets, not by Apple.

"The announcement was that we would match the UK price to that of other lower priced European countries," an Apple spokesman told the Beeb [BBC]. "This is no longer necessary as exchange rates have effectively done it for us."

In January, 1€ was equivalent to £0.75, though Apple was charging Brits 79p to download a song that would cost other Europeans €0.99. Now, 1€ equals £0.798, so there's effective price parity.

[pshrynk]

Who says economics doesn't work?