Aractus,
About importing: at import from outside the EU you have to pay taxes: import duties + VAT of 21% will be added for endusers. This doesn't generally make purchases abroad more interesting, since there may be a higher freight charge involved too and if a product is malfunctioning it would often need to be returned to the original region of sale. I have found many IT products in the USA being about 40% cheaper than in Europe, if you compare store prices to endusers. Ofcourse: this is deceiving, since the same warranty does not always apply and USA prices are advertised excl. VAT, while here they are including VAT (for sale to endusers). To my knowledge, no state in the USA has 21% of VAT (value added tax)...
Parallel circuits can have advantages and disadvantages, they are not exactly 100% legal and can cause problems with warranty, product support and e.g. compatibility with localised standards (e.g. powerplugs, AC power standard, TV standards, non localised keyboard, requirements for use of telecom/wireless equipment that aren't met, certificates that allow use in the EU etc..) and they will often not support local language & have non-localised manuals. This is done quite often with for example GSMs, the result is you get loads of warranty issues - + sometimes cheap quality battery problems and such you would want to avoid as a dealer/reseller. There are certain rules and quality/warranty laws manufacturers have to adhere to for sales made to the EU or certain countries within the EU. These rules do not always apply outside the EU, thus such product - if parallel imported may in fact be illegal for sale in (or specific countries of) the EU aswell.
Ofcourse, this does not apply so much to sale of media like CD/DVD/Blu Ray - other that it may circumvent distribution agreements made by the IP owner and their local distributionpartners. Since there is free trade within the EU zone among countries that signed the Schengen accords, it would be possible to buy e.g. blank media outside of Belgium. BUT: then you are the importer, and thus responsible for reporting and paying the auvibel tax directly to auvibel. If you don't: I can assure you, they keep an eye on many distributors in other countries aswell and several people and distributors have already received fines or have been warned they have to charge these taxes if they sell to Belgium and send the funds to Auvibel.
1) Your point being? It is pure reality for us: there are several cases where a CD is actually more expensive than a concert DVD. Often there is no logical or justifiable explanation. Same for e.g. camera's: can you explain to me why e.g. a Canon camera retailing normally at 300-400 EUR would be approx. 100 EUR excl. VAT (distribution cost!) cheaper in Germany than in Belgium? It's pure reality - we had this before and complained to Canon about it, why: Canon's distributionprices in Belgium are simply HIGHER (in this case by an abnormal amount)! If it is pricefixing, it is not at the dealer's this is happening!
Ofcourse: if the local manufacturer's department is that much more expensive, all you can do is complain about it and hope it helps - if you want to follow the appropriate channels that is. We even see large differences within the European Union in terms of pricing between different regions of sale within the EU. It does however not mean that all products are exactly the same all the time.
2) You are assuming I was talking about products being defective within 8 days after purchase or product with manufacturing defects (which would both fall under consumer warranty here). I was talking about offering cheap original copies of products that go defective within use, e.g. by scratching/dirt/kid breaking it etc.. as a service to their customers. These are not the manufacturer's responsability. Offering an easy and cheap means to replace damaged originals would nullify the need for endusers to make their own copies. Afterall, why would you otherwise want to make backups other than making sure you still have a copy if your original gets damaged (if no piracy is involved that is)? Ok, I see several people coming up with : streaming media players over network etc. But this would be ILLEGAL in many countries IMHO... Some countries will allow one backup by law (provided ofcourse you own the original and do not share it with others), others will not.
3) We pay something called auvibel tax per disc (0,12 excl. VAT per cd and 0,59 EUR per DVD or high def blank), we pay recuperation tax for waste processing (depends on the type of product - e.g. 2,48 for a computer LCD, 7,69 for a plasma, 0,5 for a laptop, ...), we pay tax for batteries (bebat, 0,12 EUR Excl VAT per battery), we pay tax for scanners/copiers/AIO printers that have copying function (it's called reprobel tax, the tax is somewhere from a few EUR to a few hundred EUR depending on the number of copies the machine can make per minute). The list goes on! For example: if a fitness club or pub play music they have to pay taxes to an organisation called SABAM for that, depending on what they play - the duration, the size of the space they are playing etc... Add to that VAT of 21% and count in higher freight costs & more time needed to efectively get much of these products from Asia (where much of it is made) to Europe. So yes, ofcourse we pay more.. This is not imaginative or something that has yet to be discussed/voted about, it is already an EXISTING REALITY in some countries.
Again: I do not live in Australia, when will you understand that the same conditions do not exist around the globe? Feel fortunate you get better prices and that get blank media very cheaply...
I could give you a few examples about blank media prices if you like...
For example, I'm just picking a few random items:
FUJI / 48162 BLU RAY DISC JEWELCASE BD-R 25GB 1-2X 5PACK 72,00 EUR VAT Incl = 14,4 EUR per 25GB once writable Blu Ray disc
SONY / BNR50A BLU RAY -R DOUBLE LAYER 50GB 270MIN 32,00 EUR VAT incl. for a single 50GB once writable Blu Ray disc
43572 Verbatim DVD+R/8.5GB 2.4x AdvAZO DoubleLayer 25sp 73,00 EUR VAT Incl. = 2,92 EUR per dual layer DVD+R disc
PHILIPS / DR4S6B50F/00 DVD+R 4.7GB DATA 16X 50-SPINDLE 52,00 EUR VAT Incl = 1,04 EUR per DVD+R 4.7GB disc
SONY / 50CDQ80NSPMD CDR 80 MIN 700MB SPINDLE 50PK . 18,00 EUR VAT Incl = 0,36 per CD
I guess it would be a small war in the land of Oz if people asked you to pay that, no?
If you look at the prices of the blank Blu Ray or DVD+R dual layer media, you see where I'm getting at: if they 'd sell original DVD's at 5-9 EUR and cd's at 4-7 EUR + Blu ray 15-20 EUR - there would not be much of a point for many people to put any effort in copying it on blank media (illegaly or not) - would it?
I'm definately not pro these taxes, my point is they have to give more incentive for people to actually BUY the originals and one of the ways to do that is make prices more competitive&more honest, another is to offer cheap replacements for original discs that have become damaged of defective. Third means is to explain to people why it is better to buy the original and support the artists involved: make them feel they are doing the right thing by justifying/explaining what's involved in the prices of their products.
Uptil now the industry has been thinking that annoying people with loads of unwanted protection schemes is the way to go. We have to convince them it is not.
Then again, I hear from people in IT business that quite some IT products are hard to obtain or much more expensive in Australia too - so my guess not all is perfect in Australia either
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