by , 8:30 AM EST, December 3rd, 2004

The British Office of Fair Trading has referred a complaint over alledged high pricing on Apple's iTunes music service to the European Commission because it said it is in a better position to rule on the claim, the BBC reported Friday.

The move follows a complaint filed in September by the British Consumer Association, now known as Which?, claiming Apple Computer charges iTMS users in the UK 20% more than those in France and Germany and that customers are unfairly barred from logging on to the French and German sites.

Apple defended its pricing structure saying it was based on market influence. "The underlying economic model in each country has an impact on how we price our track downloads," Apple said in a statement. "That's not unusual, look at the price of CDs in the US versus the UK. We believe the real comparison to be made is with the price of other track downloads in the UK.