According to the latest reports, the Australian Parliament has called up three US-based companies Microsoft, Apple and Adobe to explain why their products’ prices are higher in Australia as compared to other countries. These three American companies were actually summoned by the House Committee on Infrastructure and Communications, which wants them to appear as part of an in progress inquiry about the difference on tech pricing. This investigation began back in May 2012 in order to check “whether a difference in prices exists between IT hardware and software products, including computer games and consoles, e-books and music and videos sold in Australia over the Internet or in retail outlets as compared to markets in the U.S., UK and economies in the Asia-Pacific.”
The inquiry started after Australian Parliament came to know through estimates that prices of a number of products in Australia are up to 60 percent higher when compared to US prices, according to a member of the Australian House of Representatives, Ed Husic. Talking to Kotaku Australia the house member also said that “in what’s probably the first time anywhere in the world, these IT firms are now being summoned by the Australian Parliament to explain why they price their products so much higher in Australia compared to in the U.S. 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.”
This latest development is basically the result of a long-running disagreement between US tech companies in Australia and Australian policy-makers over unfair pricing in the region. The Managing Director of Apple for Australia, Tony King had agreed back in 2011 to talk with Husic about high tech prices in the country. At that point in time, MacRumours reported that unfair pricing involved software like Adobe’s CS5.5 Design Premium, which costs about 75 percent more to Australians as compared to Americans, whereas the MacBook Air was found 15 percent more costly in Australia.
However, Husic said that he failed to set up a meeting with representatives of Apple, while the California-based tech giant was blamed of “snubbing” not only Australian media and consumers, but Parliament as well by following the same high pricing strategy. On the other hand, Apple laid blame on “layers of Australian taxes, warranties and copyright holders for higher local prices,” as per Australian Financial Review.
Source: TechCrunch
Photo: TNW
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