AppleInsider Staff
Tech heavyweights Apple, Microsoft and Adobe have been subpoenaed to a public hearing by the Australian government to address allegations of unfair pricing practices in that country.
Australia's House Committee on Infrastructure and Communications on Monday officially summoned the three U.S. companies to explain why Australian market products seemingly carry higher premiums than identical wares sold internationally, reports CNET Australia. The summons (PDF link) is part of an ongoing probe investigating possible digital content and computer hardware price gouging.
"Adobe, Apple and Microsoft are just a few firms that have continually defied the public’s call for answers and refused to appear before the IT Pricing Inquiry," Member of Parliament and inquiry head Ed Husic told Kotaku Australia. "It’ll be interesting to hear specifically how all three companies defend their practices — particularly with regards to the pricing of digital products. Considering the amount of publishers that artificially raise prices on services like Steam for Australian consumers, hopefully these summons represent a very real attempt by the Australian government to take IT companies to task on unfair pricing policies."
From the summons:
The Committee is looking at the impacts of prices charged to Australian consumers for IT products – Australian consumers often pay much higher prices for hardware and software than people in other countries.
The probe over IT hardware and software first launched in April 2012, with the Australian Parliament investigating pricing discrepancies between Australia and other countries. As an example, earlier reports cited the cost of Adobe's Creative Suite 6, which launched last year in the U.S. for $1,299, compared to nearly $2,700 in Australia.
According to the publication, Apple and Adobe previously attended a public hearings regarding the matter, while Microsoft submitted claims to the committee.
The three tech firms are scheduled to convene at the hearing on March 22 in Canberra.
William Gallagher
Christine McKee
Chip Loder
Malcolm Owen
40 Comments
Obviously Australia has the idea they are getting shafted. Digital software shouldn't cost more in comparison to the US or EU.
Obviously Australia has the idea they are getting shafted. Digital software shouldn't cost more in comparison to the US or EU.
It has always been that way. Electronics, movies, and music have always been priced quite high there. It likely carried on in purely digital formats. Stated prices include sales tax there. They refer to it as GST, so you do have to figure that 10% sales tax is factored into the price you see. Even then it's often considerably more expensive.
They have more rich people there?
It took them so long to realize that they're getting shafted? Not likely. I think it was more of a convenience to charge more where there was not much of a repercussion.. I hope these guys don't come up with a 'convincing' reason to charge more for Australian markets..
Nothing will happen, if will blow over and we will still be cheated as we have been for decades. These large companies are all guilty, although it would be nice for Apple to come clean, but this would be an admission of guilt.