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   By Tobias Buck, Karl de Meyer in Brussels and Emiko Terazono in London In a surprise development, the Brussels regulator last week sent a confidential statement of objections to Apple and "major record companies".These are understood to include Universal, Warner, EMI and Sony BMG.

The European Commission s confirmation of the action came as Steve Jobs, chief executive of Apple, was in London for a joint press conference with Eric Nicoli, head of EMI.Mr Nicoli announced EMI would be making its music available on iTunes online without copyright protection.EMI is the first record "major" to remove digital rights management the copyright protection that prevents piracy from its catalogue.

A spokesman for Neelie Kroes, EU competition commissioner, said Apple s agreements restricted "music sales in the sense that consumers can only buy music from the iTunes store in their country of residence" and that consumers were therefore limited "in their choice of where to buy music and, consequently, what music is available and at what price".He said: "The Commission alleges that these agreements violate the [EU] treaty s rules prohibiting restrictive business practices." Brussels stressed that its allegations had nothing to do with the lack of interoperability between the iTunes format and rival players.Apple said it had always wanted to operate a pan-European iTunes store "accessible by anyone from any member state" but was advised by music publishers that there were legal limits to the rights they could grant.

"We do not believe the company did anything to violate EU law and we will continue to work with the EU to resolve this matter." Apple and several big music companies are facing a European Commission antitrust probe after Brussels issued formal charges alleging that the deals underpinning the sale of music through the hugely popular iTunes platform violated competition rules.In a surprise development, the Brussels regulator last week sent a confidential statement of objections to Apple and .

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