Apple probed for 'ripping off' customers

Last i remembered the itunes store hardly turns a profit for apply, we have to taki into account the licensing fees, cost of bandwtih, etc. in the UK and EU compared to the US. Internet and distribution are cheap as dirt.

Apples also cost a shitload more in the UK. They should protest about that. Do these watchdogs have a site we can check out?
 
Lets just make it clear here that apple is being "probed" because it is against the law in europe to chrage different countries different prces for the same product its part of the lawso on free trade (with in the EU) i think? but it cant just be TAX because its more than the difference than TAX and anyway did apple set up the iTMS in Luxembourg or somewher so that they would be taxed the least out of all the europen countries?
 
Yeah, _they_ would be taxed the least. Selling the songs is a different matter.
 
yes that right, microsoft would never do anything to hurt another company. keep thinking that fryke...

history has shown as microsofts face.
companies shutting down and ppl losing their jobs just because of microsofts dirty tricks :)



mdkny: im sorry to dissapoint u but sometimes things dont work as u think...
a worker in greece gets payed half the money than a worker in the UK.
still, a worker in greece pays more for most of the electronic products around than any UK cityzen... should 10million greeks start complaining that they're being ripped off??
 
The CA is actually arguing that, under EU law all EU consumers must be charged the same price for identical goods - after taking tax and currency variations into account, of course. That's the whole point of a 'single market'.

Is it winging to ask for the rules to be applied? And by the way Soulseek, to continue calling the UK 'England' after being told otherwise shows lack of respect for other cultures, IMHO.
 
The problem is that you are equating tangible goods with the IP of the record companies. The single market of the EU does not extend to IP so Apple has to pay the rates demanded by the local copyright licensees. If the UK recording association wants to charge more then they can and do. The beef that you have is with other subjects of the crown who are charging you more through Apple and not Apple directly.
 
You have a good point about IP rights Mita, but there's another aspect of EU law here which is equally important. Any EU citizen should be able to buy any product in any other country of the EU. When Volkswagen tried to stop Brits buying their cars more cheaply in Belgium they were told it was illegal to do so.

So restricting British purchasers to to the UK iTunes store is - so far as I can see - illegal. How that squares with copyright law I don't know - it's obviously an interesting case.


20/09 ...apologies ...I see I called Lurk, Mita - a senior moment :rolleyes:
 
Yes but then the EU is a 'work in progress', meaning: There are _bound_ to be contradicting laws, and practice will eventually lead to a better system. What works for cars doesn't have to work for the music industry (different problems). It'd sure be nice for customers if they could choose from which iTMS to buy, but then again that'd probably just mean there'd have to be _one_ iTMS for all EU. Maybe this will eventually even lead to the music industry in Europe changing accordingly?

I still wonder what Switzerland will get in the end, if we'll _ever_ get access to the iTMS (Switzerland is not part of the EU, although we're at the heart of Europe, hate it, but true...).
 
I don't know why people keep trying to come up with reasons to try and justify what Apple are doing, if these were the reasons, then surely Apple would have stated them themselves in their defense.

What they said however was:

“The underlying economic model in each country has an impact on how we price our track downloads.

“That’s not unusual. Look at the price of CDs in the US versus the UK.

“We believe the real comparison to be made is with the price of other track downloads in the UK.”

Which to me translates as - "everyone else is ripping them off, why shouldn't we?".


Also, as to claims that cars cost so much more in the UK due to having to switch from the steering wheel from the left to the right (or, as a better argument would have been, to cover the cost of producing both left and right-hand drive models), I say: not true. A growing number of people in the UK import cars from Europe, specially ordered with the steering wheel on the correct side, and have to pay various import, shipping/collection and registration chrages, and it still works out a lot cheaper than buying them in the UK.

It really does seem that Britain is charged more for goods in a lot of cases than elsewhere in Europe, and it seems that it's for no other reason than because companies can get away with it.

Hopefully, when (if?) we join the Euro, there will be greater price transparency, and prices will start to fall in line with one elsewhere in the EU.


Apple aren't the only guilty party, but that doesn't mean they're innocent.
 
lnoelstorr said:
What they said however was:

“The underlying economic model in each country has an impact on how we price our track downloads.

“That’s not unusual. Look at the price of CDs in the US versus the UK.

“We believe the real comparison to be made is with the price of other track downloads in the UK.”

Which to me translates as - "everyone else is ripping them off, why shouldn't we?".
Click to expand...

I would get a different translation service then, I think your may have a bit of a persecution complex. The costs of licensing music in the UK is very much a part of the economic model of the country. What they did not do which you may have been hoping for was point the finger at someone else and say "its not us, they are the ones giving you the shaft!" Which is not very professional or something you would do to someone who you hope to have an ongoing business relationship.
 
They could simply say "the reason for the higher prices in the UK is that there are higher licensing costs" that's not really pointing the finger and saying "its not us, they are the ones giving you the shaft!", it would just be an honest response that explained the situation. Although, it still wouldn't explain why they are (possibly illegally) stopping UK customers (or customers from other countries in the EU) from purchasing from the French or German stores. This may well be due to pressure being placed on them by the record industry, but then if it is, and Apple are being probed, then I can't see how they can do anything but point the finger to the cause of the problem.
 
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