Apple, the American electronics group, and the music companies Universal and Sony BMG will defend themselves today against claims by the European Commission that iTunes’ pricing across Europe disadvantages British consumers.

At issue is the pricing of songs on iTunes. Consumers in Britain pay 79p, but customers in the eurozone pay 99 cents, the equivalent of 54.8p. The Apple online stores do not allow Europeans to shop at stores in other countries, meaning that British customers are forced to pay more.

Warner Music and EMI, the other leading music companies, have declined to attend a private hearing before the Commission. Both companies believe that they have successfully impressed on the Commission that they are not responsible for how Apple prices songs on its iTunes download store. A spokesman for EMI said that it had “no need to attend in this case”.

Lawyers acting for the Vivendi-owned Universal will defend the music company this morning, with Sony BMG’s team following in the afternoon. Apple will be present all day and Eddy Cue, its global president of iTunes, is expected to attend with its advisers.

The hearing comes after the Commission issued a “statement of objections” on Apple’s pricing policy to both the electronics company and the world’s four music majors on March 30. That came after a complaint to the Commission by Which?, formerly the Consumers’ Association.

The issue for the Commission is that it must prove that Apple is dominant enough to justify regulatory intervention. Although Apple has an estimated 80 per cent of the digital download market, as a retailer it represents a small share of the market when the likes of HMV, WH Smith and Wal-Mart’s Asda are included.

Apple accuses the music companies of preventing it from operating a pan-European, one-price service. A spokesman said yesterday: “Unfortunately, the music and publishing companies said they couldn’t license us their music on terms that would enable us to achieve this. Apple is simply abiding by these licensing terms and national copyright laws.”

All four music majors say that there is nothing in their sales agreements to prevent Apple opening up its cheaper European stores to Britons. The majors say that they prevent Apple only from selling songs in countries where they do not have the rights and that they should be allowed to introduce staggered release dates so that a launch can be timed with promotional tours.

One music major, which asked not to be named, said that its agreement with Apple specified only that it receive a set proportion of the retail price, leaving Apple discretion as to the price that it charged. Nothing in the agreement barred Apple from cutting its price in Britain to eurozone levels.

Apple enforces the rules by requiring customers to have a credit or debit card registered to an address in the country of the store in question.

Officials of Britain’s Office of Fair Trading will be at today’s hearing. Details are expected to emerge in coming weeks, but no date is set for a decision.

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