Kildonan
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A CHOICE analysis, conducted in June this year for a parliamentary inquiry into IT price discrimination and based on online prices of more than 200 products, found Australian consumers pay an average of 50% more for PC games, 34% more for software, 52% more for iTunes music, 41% more for computer hardware and a huge 88% more for Wii games than our US counterparts. Although these prices don’t take into account the average 9.6% US sales tax (iTunes prices also don’t include Australian GST), the mark-up remains considerable nonetheless.
Shopping without walls
Not all retailers have embraced the web as a "borderless world". Australians pay more.
What do we do? I know that music I buy through i-tunes is quite a bit dearer than if I bought them with a US IP address. Is there a legitimate reason for this? Why should we pay more for the same product? What happened to the market setting the price?
Choice Magazine offers a guide to circumventing the geoblocks (giving appropriate warnings)
If unscrupulous companies are using the arbitrary geoblock system to pump up profits can we fight back?
Is it feasible that we organise a consumer class action that forces the government to apply HUGE sanctions against companies that cannot justify the price increase.
I found this
Media contact: Matt Levey, CHOICE head of campaigns – 0488 214 066
1. Popular websites such as iTunes and Steam engage in geo-blocking tactics to charge higher prices to Australians. Others such as Netflix and Hulu don’t allow Australians to access their products at all.
2. CHOICE research found that Australians pay approximately 50% more than US consumers for identical digital products including music downloads, PC and console games and computer software and hardware. This research was provided to the current Parliamentary Inquiry into IT pricing – see www.choice.com.au/itpricing
What CHOICE wants
We believe an effective way to bring Australian IT prices into line with those overseas is to increase competition between large international suppliers and parallel importers who sell genuine IT products, but at cheaper prices.
CHOICE’s three recommendations to combat international price discrimination are:
CHOICE has previously noted Australian’s higher retail prices in a submission to the productivity Commission last year.
Be sure to sign up as a campaign supporter to receive updates on all of our campaigns.
Shopping without walls
Not all retailers have embraced the web as a "borderless world". Australians pay more.
What do we do? I know that music I buy through i-tunes is quite a bit dearer than if I bought them with a US IP address. Is there a legitimate reason for this? Why should we pay more for the same product? What happened to the market setting the price?
Choice Magazine offers a guide to circumventing the geoblocks (giving appropriate warnings)
If unscrupulous companies are using the arbitrary geoblock system to pump up profits can we fight back?
Is it feasible that we organise a consumer class action that forces the government to apply HUGE sanctions against companies that cannot justify the price increase.
I found this
Media contact: Matt Levey, CHOICE head of campaigns – 0488 214 066
1. Popular websites such as iTunes and Steam engage in geo-blocking tactics to charge higher prices to Australians. Others such as Netflix and Hulu don’t allow Australians to access their products at all.
2. CHOICE research found that Australians pay approximately 50% more than US consumers for identical digital products including music downloads, PC and console games and computer software and hardware. This research was provided to the current Parliamentary Inquiry into IT pricing – see www.choice.com.au/itpricing
What CHOICE wants
We believe an effective way to bring Australian IT prices into line with those overseas is to increase competition between large international suppliers and parallel importers who sell genuine IT products, but at cheaper prices.
CHOICE’s three recommendations to combat international price discrimination are:
- Educate consumers through government initiatives so people know their rights when shopping online - particularly in relation to returns and refunds, accessing legitimate parallel imports from foreign markets, as well as privacy and security.
- Investigation by the Federal Government into whether technological measures enabling suppliers to discriminate against Australian consumers, such as region-coding or identifying IP addresses, should continue to be allowed.
- Keep the low-value threshold (LVT) exemption for GST and duty on imported goods unchanged at $1000.
CHOICE has previously noted Australian’s higher retail prices in a submission to the productivity Commission last year.
Be sure to sign up as a campaign supporter to receive updates on all of our campaigns.