Well it had to happen eventually. The Office of Fair Trading have passed Apple's iTunes service on to the European Commission on grounds it's ripping off it's UK customers.

"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."

To buy music through iTunes in the UK costs 20% more then in France or Germany.

MSN Music charge 99 cents in Europe and 69p here. The same price. As do all the other stores I've had a quick look through.

So what are you doing Apple?

I hope they throw the book at them, and the bookcase to follow. We've long been ripped off, so what's new you say? We've always been able to import goods from Europe. But Apple block UK customers from other European iTunes sites, that's one step too far. I hope Brussels makes them understand that the European Union is a single market and all member states should receive the same service for the same price, and they won't tolerate companies trying to break the union for their own petty gains, something we in the UK have had to suffer from for too long.