  We systematically analyse all publicly available XMM-Newton spectra of
radio-quiet PG quasars. The soft X-ray excess in these objects is well modelled
by an additional, cool, Compton scattering region. However, the remarkably
constant temperature derived for this component over the whole sample requires
a puzzling fine tuning of the parameters. Instead, we propose that the soft
excess is an artifact of strong, relativistically smeared, partially ionized
absorption. The strong jump in opacity at ~0.7 keV from OVII, OVIII and iron
can lead to an apparent soft excess below this energy, which is trivially
constant since it depends on atomic processes. This can have a dramatic effect
on the derived spectrum, which has implications for fitting the relativistic
smearing of the reflected iron line emission from the disc.
