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There's good news for British music consumers who like to do their shopping digitally through the iTunes music store. Within six months, the cost of downloads bought through the UK version of the store will drop by 10 percent - bringing pricing here in line with the rest of Europe. The move was welcomed in Brussels, where European regulators had initiated antitrust proceedings against Apple over the pricing disparity... Jonathan Todd is a spokesman for the European Commission. SOUNDBITE: JONATHAN TODD, EUROPEAN COMMISSION SPOKESMAN FOR COMPETITION SAYING (English) : "That allows the Commission to put an end to its antitrust proceedings" The case dates back to 2005, when the British consumer association Which? complained that iTunes stores in France and Germany charged 99 euro cents per song - or rougly one dollar and fourty five cents - while Britons were charged 79 pence (1.06 euros) for the same download. In a statement Apple CEO Steve Jobs called his company's move "an important step towards a pan-European marketplace for music" and went on to say "We hope every major record label will take a pan-European view of pricing." The company's statement said it currently pays some record companies more to distribute their music within the UK than in other parts of Europe - and that it will reconsider its relationship with any record companies that do not bring UK prices in line with the pan-European level within six months. The Commission said antitrust proceedings clarified that it is not agreements between Apple and major record companies that determine how the iTunes store is organised in Europe... SOUNDBITE JONATHAN TODD, EUROPEAN COMMISSION SPOKESMAN FOR COMPETITION SAYING: "Contrary to what we had been led to believe when we opened the antitrust case, the fact that the same content is not available from all, in all the different European countries, is not the result of a restrictive business practice between Apple and the major record companies, rather it is the result of the existing states of copyright legislation and the fact that some, but not all, of the major record companies, chose not to make available their contents on a pan-European basis" Consequently, the Commission announced there will be no further action on the matter. Matt Cowan, Reuters.