Apple has announced that it will be standardizing the prices of music on the European iTunes service over the next six months. This means that the UK iTunes store will be dropping its prices to match those found in other pan-European areas.

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A bizarre thing happens to European patrons of iTunes online music stores. When a European consumer buys music from the iTunes Belgian store, for example, they may only use a credit card issued by the bank with an address in Belgium. Because of this territorial restrictions, consumers are then limited in their freedom to purchase the songs they want, and where they want it bought. As such, the European commission has opened an antitrust probe into Apple's iTunes and the way it sells music online in coordination with major music companies.

The EU Commission does this probe amidst complaints from consumer groups coming from Germany, France, the Netherlands and Nordic countries. Such groups have demanded Apple to change the rules it imposes on its online music stores.

Apple, meanwhile, responds that the company actually wants to operate a single store for all of Europe. But publishers and music labels alike won't have any of this, as they believe Apple's rights are not all-encompassing. Spokesman Steve Dowling says Apple does not believe it did anything to violate the EU law.

Apple has been given a "statement of objections" by the EU Commission. The electronics giant has two months to answer the questions issued in the letter. If found guilty, Apple may be forced to part with as much as 10 percent of its total world income to pay for the EU fines.