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Price Gouging in Oz: MS, Adobe and Apple in Well Deserved Tight Spot.

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Price Gouging in Oz: MS, Adobe and Apple in Well Deserved Tight Spot.

from JoeUser Forums

 

The Australian Parliament has finally gotten off its duff and is probing the price gouging there.

This is getting ridiculous. It’s actually cheaper for an Australian to fly to the US and buy CS6 here than to buy it in Oz! Well, Adobe’s going 100% digital and dropping box sets, so that might well not be happening any more, but the Australian legislature is demanding answers. Good for them, and high time. This has been going on for decades.

Companies often charge a premium of more than 70% in Oz as compared to the US pricing:

Microsoft: Office Professional USA: $399, AU: $599… failed to justify the price difference. So what did Pip Marlowe (MS’s Oz managing directrix) say? “customers will vote with their wallets”. They probably would, except tat the alternatives are also inflated. She might have equally said, “Let them eat cake.”

Adobe’s Oz managing director Paul Robson couldn’t justify the nearly 75% higher price for boxed editions of CS6 but pointed out the more equally priced cloud edition. That’s just absurd, since Adobe is eliminating physical editions in the future: Maybe the news takes longer to get to Oz, too.

Apple’s Australian boss Tony King came out best of the three. He stated that hardware differs in price only after conversions and taxes are figured in. The higher prices for digital content resulted from higher prices for Australia resulted from higher contract prices from the record labels and studios setting higher prices for Australia over similar content for the USA.

One has to wonder if these things are carry overs from before the digital age, when all content was physical. If so, it’s high time that delivery method should determine price. It costs next to nothing to deliver these goods digitally. After all, wasn’t that the main selling point of the internet and the digital age?

Whether that’s true or not, it’s high time Australians get treated equally with respect to digital delivery, and that physical delivery prices come into line and be justified by fact, and not by “What the market can bear.” That proposition requires an alternative priced differently.

Perhaps the best alternative is using Open Office or Libre Office, and returning the thumb in the eye.

Source:

http://www.neowin.net/news/microsoft-adobe-apple-poorly-justify-australian-price-gouging

102,766 views 47 replies
Reply #26 from WinCustomize Forums Top

Quoting Liquid, reply 23
And the containers that do get shipped are probably not full either. 

 

this!

the company i work for serves a market of about 100 million people. still that market is too small to order full containers of some goods. so we have to buy these goods from wholesale importers in Rotterdam that serve all of Europe.

Reply #27 from WinCustomize Forums Top

Quoting PoSmedley, reply 15

Screw Apple and video games, etc. I am still trying to figure out how a drug can cost 7 times more in Oz than the U.S.A. And I have seen the reverse with EURO countries costing a fraction of what thew Americans have to pay for the same drug. When did saving lives, relieving suffering, and easing pain become the bastardized market ir is?

Nothing personal, but i could give a rats ass who pays what, where for software. Sometimes I think it's done to distract folks and have them confuse what's important.

 

this is actually the only complaint i can take serious.

price control for luxury items like games or music? that's decadent and i don't think even the Soviets did go that far.

 

on those drug prices, i think the approach of the Indian government is best. if a pharma company asks so much for a drug that even the middle class can not afford it, they just override their patents and let local companies produce generics. as a result a dose of Tramadol costs nine rupees in India. smuggling Tramadol from India is not advisable, it's basically a weaker version of Heroin, so punishment might be severe.

so you guys need some Indian pharma company to build a factory in Australia.

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Reply #28 from WinCustomize Forums Top

...or we could improve our lot with a Union Carbide factory....;p

Whether or not there's price-gouging for some bullshit Super Mario brothers is irrelevant.  Most [if not all] businesses require IT ...you know....computers and such...and they need proper OS software [not backyarders with script-kiddie prop hats]...and it's the manufacturers of THOSE that are being taken to task....not how much C and C costs....;p

Reply #29 from WinCustomize Forums Top

Quoting moshi, reply 27
if a pharma company asks so much for a drug that even the middle class can not afford it, they just override their patents and let local companies produce generics.

That is illegal. One cannot simply steal others' IP.

Reply #30 from Stardock Forums Top

Quoting ARESIV, reply 6

I wont buy anything from them.

That is probably often true, but it's also often true that games are cheaper in the UK last I saw anyone do a comparison.

http://steamreview.org/posts/localisedprices/

So blame whatever you like, but from everything I've read Steam isn't at fault here.

 

Anyway, back on topic, I think what we can take away from all this is if politicians actually did their jobs gouging wouldn't happen.  Good luck to you Oz peoples.

Reply #31 from WinCustomize Forums Top

Some FACTS about Australian copyright law...before it was pissed up against the wall of the US free trade agreement.... it was so restrictive with regards to the duplication of 'software' someone eventually gave concession to products-essential-to-a-business  could legally be copied for backup/replacement where not to do so would endanger the viability of the business.

That's how black and white it was....ZERO copying of any sort for any reason.

Meanwhile...in Asia....just over the pond....every man and his dog was mass-printing anything and everything.

It's not a 'small thing' when the ACCC takes up an issue.... be it the fuckers in the US hijacking the 'ugg boot' and DEMANDING history books and dictionaries be rewritten .... or how a consortium outside of AUS could legislate globally against our free access to products [Region coding]...

It's all a little too much like The Mouse That Roared.   So we declare war on the US....just one Monolithic Mega-corp at a time....;p

Reply #32 from WinCustomize Forums Top

Quoting DrJBHL, reply 29


Quoting moshi, reply 27 if a pharma company asks so much for a drug that even the middle class can not afford it, they just override their patents and let local companies produce generics.

That is illegal. One cannot simply steal others' IP.

 

it's legal, and it is not stealing. see the Doha Declaration $5 b. this has happened in South Africa and Thailand as well.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doha_Declaration

Reply #33 from WinCustomize Forums Top

"However, in order for the decision to have legal effect, two-thirds of the WTO's 153 Members are required to ratify the agreement. The European Union's acceptance only brings the number to 41.[2]"

Possibly not quite as 'legal' as it wants to be....;)

Dang it ...Wiki screwed with the font...;p

Reply #34 from WinCustomize Forums Top

Quoting Jafo, reply 28

...or we could improve our lot with a Union Carbide factory....

Whether or not there's price-gouging for some bullshit Super Mario brothers is irrelevant.  Most [if not all] businesses require IT ...you know....computers and such...and they need proper OS software [not backyarders with script-kiddie prop hats]...and it's the manufacturers of THOSE that are being taken to task....not how much C and C costs....

 

businesses do not do depreciations in Australia?

also i think the original post was about downloadable content. Adobe is hardly a manufacturer.

Reply #35 from WinCustomize Forums Top

Quoting moshi, reply 34
Adobe is hardly a manufacturer.

??????

Reply #36 from WinCustomize Forums Top

Quoting moshi, reply 34
businesses do not do depreciations in Australia?

also i think the original post was about downloadable content. Adobe is hardly a manufacturer.

Moshi....'manufacturer' as in 'publisher' of software....this is primarily about software.

/me types slowly............;)

Price gouging of MS/Apple/Adobe software ...all of which are required for/by industry/commerce/etc. ...;)

Reply #37 from WinCustomize Forums Top

Quoting Jafo, reply 33

"However, in order for the decision to have legal effect, two-thirds of the WTO's 153 Members are required to ratify the agreement. The European Union's acceptance only brings the number to 41.[2]"

Possibly not quite as 'legal' as it wants to be....

Dang it ...Wiki screwed with the font...

 

the disagreement is only about §6. 

Reply #38 from WinCustomize Forums Top

Theft is theft. Voting/formulating does not change wrong into right.

Try voting on taking something out of my house without my permission. You'll find out quickly enough that 'might' have Orthopedic and Reconstructive surgical consequences.

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Reply #39 from WinCustomize Forums Top

Doc...it's like the 'right' a police officer is supposed to have to commandeer your car if it's needed to assist him in his duty.

That thingie moshi refers to is about side-stepping a source to manufacture medicine in an 'emergency'...vaccines, etc.

It's not actually intended as a "you can reverse engineer my chemicals and copy it and sell it as a generic in competition".

Anyone inferring that has missed its intent.... a bit like that 'right to bare arms' [sic] ....;p

Reply #40 from WinCustomize Forums Top

Quoting Jafo, reply 36


Quoting moshi, reply 34businesses do not do depreciations in Australia?

also i think the original post was about downloadable content. Adobe is hardly a manufacturer.

Moshi....'manufacturer' as in 'publisher' of software....this is primarily about software.

Jafo types slowly............

Price gouging of MS/Apple/Adobe software ...all of which are required for/by industry/commerce/etc. ...

 

thanks for the correction. 

 

Reply #41 from WinCustomize Forums Top

Quoting DrJBHL, reply 38

Theft is theft. Voting/formulating does not change wrong into right.

Try voting on taking something out of my house without my permission. You'll find out quickly enough that 'might' have Orthopedic and Reconstructive surgical consequences.

 

you are aware that such things happen all the time (although to a lesser extent in the US than the rest of the world)? people get driven out of their houses for the common good to build dams, mines, roads, etc. ?

one might dislike that, but most often it is perfectly legal.

 

on the issue of compulsory licenses for generics i disagree with you. this by my definition is not theft. western prices for medicine in developing countries is a travesty and those predators that want to make more profit with healing one person for $100000 instead of 1000 people for $90 deserve to be punished.

Reply #43 from WinCustomize Forums Top

Quoting sydneysiders, reply 42
and so it continues....  link....     

nothing wrong with a surcharge if it's to recover costs, you can't make a profit out of it ... i've yet to see the authorities take to task most surcharges. It's usually us  having to sue a business for recovering costs, then they might do something about it. 

Would be nice if there were someone proactive in looking at surcharges ...

 

 

 

 

Reply #44 from WinCustomize Forums Top

Quoting moshi, reply 41
you are aware that such things happen all the time (although to a lesser extent in the US than the rest of the world)? people get driven out of their houses for the common good to build dams, mines, roads, etc. ?

And that, I suppose, makes it right?

The "common good"? That might just involve a political supporter's construction company...and just try to fight that steam roller.

Quoting tazgecko, reply 43
Would be nice if there were someone proactive in looking at surcharges ...

There migt be, taz...but that's little assurance he/she won't be subject to political/economic "pressures" and "considerations".

Reply #45 from WinCustomize Forums Top

Quoting DrJBHL, reply 44
And that, I suppose, makes it right?

i did not say that. you were talking about that some practices would be illegal or theft. they are not.

if something is legal or illegal has nothing to do wether it is right or wrong. the first is law, the second is personal opinion.

i for example consider large parts of sharia law to be wrong. others (also on this forum) seem to like the eye-for-an-eye approach and capital punishment.

but no matter wether one considers it right or wrong it is still the base of the law in Qatar or Saudi Arabia (legal).

Reply #46 from WinCustomize Forums Top

Moshi: Some questions are rhetorical, not accusatory. ;)

Reply #47 from WinCustomize Forums Top

It's all just pure greed folks, another human race sickness, that's all it is.