The Internet Tax

To fight price gouging or to join in?

 

 

If you are a gamer you already know that Australia pays far more than the US for games. Now this is taking into account exchange rates, and this is even for digital downloads, where no shipping is incurred. It should also be pointed out that the never ever GST (the one that was promised to eradicate all other taxes, but didn't) is not charged on international purchases less than $1000.

Lets look at a popular game the Sims 4. At launch the Sims 4 was $60 for American (US) buyers and $90 for Australian (AU) buyers. Later the mini expansion released for $19.99 for US customers, and $39.99 for Australians. If we take into account the exchange rate at the time the price for Australians may have been justified at $25.00 but in no way should it ever have been double.

There was uproar from Australians, New Zealand and our American allies, and the game released missing key features, i think these two items combined caused the company to quietly rethink its price gouging and take some action. The Sims has released a new full expansion at $40 US and $50 AU. They have also bowed to customer pressure and reduced the cost of the other mini-expansion to $29.99. We can not expect the industry to police itself, while in this case specific factors worked in customers favour, and Maxis should be applauded,  we cant rely on chance or the foresight of company's.

In 2013 the Australian Labour government held a year long federal inquiry into why Australia pays so much for IT related merchandise. This mainly focused on physical products, like TVs and computers, but did also look at digital downloads and games.

The report found that Australians pay up to 50% more on average than other countries. We pay 84% more on games, 52% more on music, 46% more on computers and 16% more on laptops.
The inquiry concluded that the usual excuse of "the cost of doing business" for the price difference for IT products cannot be justified, particularly as it relates to digital downloads.

The inquiry recommended that the Australian government;
Task the Australian Bureau of Statistics with monitoring and recording the price differences.
It wants the import restrictions removed from the  Copyright Act, 1968 and to add a clause allowing consumers to circumvent geoblocking to ensure they're getting the best price. It also wants to educate consumers how to get around geoblocking and provide more access to technologies that allow them to do so.

The inquiry recommended banning geoblocking and voiding any laws enforcing it, if  companies do not agree to lift geoblocking, or to give consumers the tools they need to circumvent it.

                                            Tony Abbot

Now we fast forward to today's Liberal government, that has hobbles the national broadband network (NBN), calls internet commentary "electronic graffiti", retains every Australians metadata in order to give to media company's to aid those company's in prosecuting those who share files, Wants to put an internet filter on Australia' internet in order to block sites that the far right wing Liberal party find objectionable, Thinks Australians only use the internet to send the occasional email, and in there latest budget are trying to cause digital online electronic purchases to be subject to the GST.That is an additional 10% on top of the unwarranted price gouging!

I don't want to sound alarmist, but i will, this could be the death of Australia as a digital marketplace.