AUSSIE consumers pay up to four times more than Americans for the same IT software, devices, games and downloads and a parliamentary inquiry is demanding to know why.
The world's biggest tech companies, Apple, Microsoft and Adobe, have been summonsed to appear before a public hearing of the House Committee on Infrastructure and Communications in Canberra on March 22 to explain their pricing discrepancies.
Aussie music lovers regularly pay around $2.19 for new release singles through Apple's iTunes store, where as US listeners pay the equivalent of $1.31, according to a submission to the inquiry by consumer group Choice last June.
The popular 16GB Apple iPad retails for around $679 in Australia, but costs only $640 in the US.
A 13-inch Apple MacBook Pro laptop costs $1349 for Aussies but just $1220 for Americans.
Australian gamers are forced to pay more than four times their US counterparts for the Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 game, which costs $89.99 in Australia and $20.34 in the US.
Microsoft also slugs Aussies $751 for its Windows Vista Ultimate software package, versus $436 for US customers.
Labor MP, Ed Husic, who is leading the charge against unfair IT pricing, said the tech giants had refused multiple requests to appear voluntarily before the committee.
"This is an important move but one we shouldn't have to take," Mr Husic said. "These firms should have cooperated and been prepared to be more open and transparent about their pricing approaches.
"In what's probably the first time anywhere in the world, these IT firms are now being called by the Australian Parliament to explain why they price their products so much higher in Australia compared to the US."
"Given the widespread use of IT across businesses and the community, the prices paid for hardware and software can have a major commercial and economic impact."
The CEO of Choice, Alan Kirkland, welcomed the move to get the tech giants to please explain.
"Australians are waking up to the fact that we are being ripped off. We believe it's time that these companies realise this and start pricing fairly in the Australian market," Mr Kirkland said.
A Choice investigation found that one Microsoft software development product Visual Studio 2012 Ultimate was so overpriced in Australia than an Aussie shopper could pay for return flights to Los Angeles, buy the software there and still come home thousands of dollars better off than buying it here.
"With price differences this stark, the same old excuses just won't cut it anymore," Mr Kirkland said.
A spokeswoman for Apple Australia refused to comment on the summons.
"We're not commenting on the IT pricing inquiry," she told News Limited.
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