Australian Govt Forces Apple, Adobe, Microsoft To Explain Price Hikes 371
An anonymous reader writes "Live outside the U.S.? Tired of paying huge local price markups on technology products from vendors such as Apple, Microsoft and Adobe? Well, rest easy, the Australian Government is on the case. After months of stonewalling from the vendors, today the Australian Parliament issued subpoenas compelling the three vendors to appear in public and take questions regarding their price hikes on technology products sold in Australia. Finally, we may have some answers for why Adobe, for example, charges up to $1,400 more for the full version of Creative Suite 6 when sold outside the U.S."
Valve / Steam... (Score:1, Informative)
should bloody well be on that list as well.
Re:Valve / Steam... (Score:3, Informative)
No they shouldn't. The producers determine the price for Austrailia if they sell there at all.
Re:Valve / Steam... (Score:5, Informative)
You talk about that one scandal as if it's unique, there are MANY examples of us paying more for Canadian made products than the Americans do. There was a news article a year or two ago about a specific model of car that was priced more than $10,000 higher at the Canadian dealership across the street from the factory than it was in Hawaii, and best of all, the excuse given was that the transportation costs in Canada were higher!
Thing is, the Canadian government has "investigated" this sort of thing many times, including yet another report that came out just last week. Do you think anything will ever change?
Canadians pay more because... well, because we pay more, that's why!
On some things we can buy online and get the same price as the rest of the world, but if you just can't do that (some products don't work well that way, and the government makes it illegal to do so with other ones, not to mention the companies that flat out refuse to sell to customers outside the US) then you're just screwed.
Re:Valve / Steam... (Score:5, Informative)
Actually, Valve is mentioned in the article as one that people wanted investigated - but not as one that required a subpoena to provide information. This suggests that Valve voluntarily told them how their pricing works.
Which, as far as I know, is "We set what price the producer wants us to, or they refuse to sell on Steam at all."
Because they can (Score:5, Informative)
That is the only honest answer that there is. As long as artificial monopolies like 'regions' are tolerated it will only continue. There is no valid reason why software or other companies should be able to use globalism for cheaper labor whilst denying consumers globalism for cheaper products. I don't see how things are going to change until world governments start demanding better treatment though.
Why are textbooks 1/10th the cost in Indonesia? Why couldn't I buy Top Gear in the US for years when it was available for cheap overseas in the discount bin? Why are Corvette's twice the price in Europe? The list goes on and the answer come back to artificial monopolies charging more because they can. Introduce competition, make grey market imports legal, demand manufacturers honor warranties regardless of the country of origin, allow people to buy software in any country regardless of where they live etc......
You do have an option (Score:4, Informative)
Re:Price Fixing? (Score:4, Informative)
You might want to research your info a bit before you start spewing Fox talking points.
If you'd bothered to check when a Republican last balanced a budget, you would find that it was in 1957 under Eisenhower. Obama, in his last term, increased the debt/GDP by ~10%. If you look at Reagan and Bush Jr, both of them had terms that increased the debt/GDP by over 25%.
Don't believe me? Google "which republican president balanced a budget?". You might learn something.
Re:Translate this to legalese: (Score:5, Informative)
That'd be because the majority of pharmaceuticals are covered under the Pharmaceutical Benefit System, ie, subsidised by the government as part of free and universal health care. I'm sure that if the Australian government didn't do that, we'd get an especially large "fuck you" from the pharma companies as well.
As far as media goes, I'm hopeful that something might come of this, it's one thing on physical products (where at least you can put it down to "shipping"), but when buying the exact same software, (or even the same song), costs at least 100% more, then there is no other explanation than price gouging. Particularly galling when most of these countries don't pay much Australian tax on their Australian profits either.
Re:Price Fixing? (Score:4, Informative)
Re:Valve / Steam... (Score:5, Informative)
It's not like the hardware is made in the USA and shipped to Australia, it's all made in the same Chinese/Asian factories and shipped over the Pacific anyway! Australians buy the same TVs/Computers/Cars (when we can get a decent model on the market) as the USA does. Sure, we're a smaller market, but that cost differences are Immense!
Re:Ratings cost money (Score:4, Informative)
http://www.classification.gov.au/Industry/Journey/Pages/CGnonA/Step3.aspx [classification.gov.au]
Re:Valve / Steam... (Score:4, Informative)
Software AND hardware costs about twice the price in third world countries, it DEFINITELY does not cost less.
Pretty simple really (Score:4, Informative)
When companies conduct business internationally, they usually negotiate a fixed exchange rate for a year (or a quarter). It helps insulate their annual financial planning from fluctuations in the currency markets. So when the AUD first shot up, the vendors importing US software still had to pay 1.3 AUD per 1.0 USD, even though 1.3 AUD was now worth closer to 1.4 USD. The next year when they went to negotiate currency exchange prices again, the US companies said "OMG! You want a 40% price cut? You can't be serious!" And the Australian vendors didn't have purchasing power to negotiate a better deal. So year after year they got shafted with prices based on pre-2007 exchange rates. (In the US companies' defense, they probably argued that if the AUD shot up 40% in a year, it could drop 40% the next year, and they weren't willing to take that big a risk and adjust the exchange rate by that large an amount. But it's unconscionable that it's continued for 5 years.)
Re:Valve / Steam... (Score:5, Informative)
And there is a very high cost to having a Walmart in your town. Low wages, no or poor health benefits shifting the costs to the taxpayer along with the massive tax incentives they receive that other local businesses can't get drive local businesses out of business. Whole towns have been decimated economically by a Walmart moving in. And when they become the only employer a town has, that town will always be at the mercy of Walmart.
Might I suggest the following for you:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jazb24Q2s94 [youtube.com]