Why Creative Cloud for Europe is so expensive?

[YahorShumski]

Just curious why the price of Creative Cloud for Europe is 60% higer? Okay, maybe there are some taxes etc but World of Warcraft online game with the same business model charges pretty the same for subscription in US and Europe.

Looks like discrimination, yeah?

[DeanUtian]

>Quite vague comparison you're making.

I was asked what other companies sell exactly the same product at different prices to different markets. So, I gave the Apple example. It is an example that the Australian government has put to Apple in ordering an explanation of why exactly the same product is sold online is at a significantly marked up price to the US.

Dean

[nj82]

As I'm reading the question by rembo2013, he asks "where Apple charge more for downloadable software". Unless I'm mistaken, software != music, movies, TV shows.

I agree that prices can be different on other markets, but in this particular statement was a bit out-of-context as it was neither about software nor is Apple who is to blame for the higher prices for media content.

Instead it would be better to make a more proper comparation, taken software by Apple. Looking at OS X Mountain Lion which is quoted at $22.28 in the DK App Store, and at $19.99 in the US App Store. Checking out Final Cut Pro it's quoted at $345.19 in DK (including VAT) compared to $299.99 in the US. The VAT in DK is 25 % whereas the VAT in Luxemborg for the iTunes S.à r.l is 15 % - where the last one (and even lowest VAT) seems to add up when calculating the prices without VAT in this particular case, making a fair and proper pricing in these case without any differences between the markets.

However, it can be different when looking at physical products, which can be rated higher - but there is also some additional layers to it (customs, shipping etc), making it acceptable in most cases.

[Screenway Media]

We would also add our concerns regarding the matters raised in this forum, moreso with the advent of Adobe Creative Cloud, as to the disparagy in costs around the world. We are European based and It may be Adobe is infringing European Law. I would urge Adobe to show loyalty and the same courtesy to their European customers as they have recently shown to their customers in Australia where they reduced the higher price to that paid in the US. All it is is a request for fairness. It's in Adobe's interests to as what is now happening is that your European customer base are feeling "second class" and discriminated against.

[99jon]

Yes it’s basically a global business with 400 million Europeans subsidizing 400 million Americans.

Federal tax rates on corporate taxable income in the US vary from 15% to 35%.

In Europe Adobe uses the low rate tax haven of  Ireland where trading profits are taxed at 12.5%.

When Adobe staff tell you its cheaper  to do business in the US, don’t believe them.

[Biggles Lamb]

If Adobe transferred the ownership if their Logo to Adobe Ireland and Adobe Ireland charged all other Adobe business locations for the use of the Logo then if the charge rate was 95% of what would be the pre tax profit then the local Adobe business would only be liable to pay Company tax on the 5% of their PTP.

That is similar to what Starbucks UK is doing and they have been paying hardly any UK tax.

Or they could just close Adobe USA and move everyone to Ireland

[Touchpadder]

I just wanted to join creative suite for $49 just as I've seen on an advertisement, a banner online. It was all going well and I was happy to get the latest CS programs. I'm making money in dollars and I'm doing my little startup targeted to US citizens.

When I reached checkout I saw that I'll be paying £46,88 per month which is a rip off!

"(...) All of these efforts impact the business costs of securing the sale, whether that sale is delivered online or in a box." My ass. In my case it's exactly the same procedure as for a US citizen. Everyhitng done online without any additional local costs. I clicked on a banner, and went straight to the checkout only to find that I'm going to pay 372 dollars per year more! I'm not buying this shit!

[AntoineM_]

Looks like the free market is working in our case:

Pixelmator 2.2 hits 500,000 downloads in a week:

http://9to5mac.com/2013/05/16/pixelmator-2-2-hits-500000-downloads-in-a-week-and-we-have-promo-codes...

[BZJet]

I was in two minds between purchasing the single app subscription (for Photoshop) and the full subscription, it was tipped in the favour of single app purley based on cost. Now if the pricing had been in line with the US I would have taken the full subscription without blinking.

Adobe are screwing themselves here. Ultimatly, I can image this is the case for a lot of people - that they only really need signicant access to one of the apps but most people would pay the full price is it was reasonable enough. Adobe get more money simple!

[Patrick_N2]

Hi Nigma2k,

I agree fully. It is the same for us. We would have upgraded all our clients to the subscription, now we just purchased one as it was really needed,
all others still have older versions. Summing up the total, Adobe earned less with us this way. I hoped Adobe would recodnize this, as they mentioned
some time back in a press release, that Cloud doesn't sell as good as expected in Europe. Well guess why... I am still in faith and hope they change as
in Australia, but probably it needs a hammer from the EU.

Patrick

[adobecareful]

Same with me.

Just stopped the purchase process when seeing prices for Switzerland in CHF.

You even wont find a support email to ask why there are price differences.

Thinking about it, when a company treats its potential customers that way,

how will they treat existing customers - for example much higher prices for

the subscription in the coming years?

I think Adobe doesnt care, as long as they have a monopol - but their monopol

is about to collapse.

[NunoMCastro]

Adobe empire is not collapsing anytime soon... Even if they lose like 25-30% of their old costumers due to the subscription plans, they will still dominate everything on a massive scale on their fields. And in the way, they get those 20-30% back in new costumers that couldn't afford the previous perpetual prices.

Despite of prices differences, to simply put, Adobe will reign because of

a) there is no real competition around (nope, GIMP and the rest are not really competition because most of them are not ready to be used in a professional level)

b) like Adobe prices decisions or not, Adobe has the best tools in lots of their fields. Some of their products are great, they innovate and lots of times they push the state of the art foward.

I don't like the price differences, and i think that's a greedy move from Adobe, but also i cannot afford to not use the Adobe tools i need. And i won't be loosing massive amounts of time learning new tools that are subpar when compared to the Adobe counterparts.

[ChristophvS]

And it isn't Adobes fault if there isn't any competition.

IF GIMP and other don't reach professional level it is because there is no need for it, and a paralell product would sooner then not infringe copyright rules.

One of the major novelty in IT Technologies, is that when the job its done, its done and its done for the whole planet.

So the question isn't to be againt monopol, but how to deal with de facto monopols.

Some says that the succes of the specie human is its capacity to adapt to changing conditions.

Has "human economicus" lost this capacity? (lol, the latin word homo economicus isn't politicaly correct)

[s33ka]

I just stopped the purchasing process ! It's still the same with the prices like last year and the versions before?

any progress with the eu petition ?

[RustyRSA]

What peeves me off is that I only bought CS6 in June 2012 yet I must pay the same upgrade fee as someone who, for example, bought CS4 a few years ago! I would have been happy to pay the $19.99 equivalent in the UK - even with some add on for the greedy middle-men.

At least in the US there is a different price for the complete version for those with CS3 to CS5 ($29.99) than those with CS6 ($19.99).

My wife uses Corel Draw X6 and it pretty does much of what I need.

At £27.34 a month I would rather pay someone in say, South Africa, to do the work. CS6 is more a toy for me to do a straw man of what I need to support my business (and to keep me from being idle when I have spare time) - and is not a core product in revenue generation - and therefore at the UK price it is very EXPENSIVE!

[gd2012]

It's amazing that Adoce Creative Cloud in Portugal costs $90 USD per month!!! How much greedier can you get?

[fl4shb1c]

Living in Holland, we are forced to pay the monthly cost of EUR 12.29 for the PS/Lightroom combo while in the US it's USD 9.99

Most companies already exploit the currencies by charging the same in EUR as they do in USD - for example USD 99,- becomes EUR 99,- over here. That's already a markup above the dollar price (after conversion), but Adobe is going even further by increasing the EUR price on top of that - that's really exploiting the European market.

Funny, I just read from the facebook page that Australia's government summoned Adobe to justify it's pricing and within 2 days before the inquiry, Adobe lowered their pricing: Adobe cuts Aussie prices ahead of government probe | CG Channel ..why doesn't Europe do the same?

[Jarno__]

One more annoyed EU customer here. I am refusing to move to CC since this EU-overpricing feels like getting screwed. It is not about the few euros. It is about feeling getting screwed. Normal custom for EU (over)pricing is just to convert change the currency and keep nominal price the same (i.e. USD 10 becomes EUR 10). That is already +30% price delta so Adobe going beyond that is just greedy.

Claiming that it is 70% more expensive to do business in EU than in US is just plain rubbish. At least it is not for many other companies selling subscription-based services and software in EU.

[oMikeo1234]

How many days do you need to work if based in the EU to pay for one year of Creative Cloud? Two? Maybe 3 if you're cheap? Thats a whole lot of days where CC pretty much costs you nothing...

[Jarno__]

oMikeo1234

How is your comment related to Adobe's discriminating pricing in Europe vs. in the US? I do not see there any connection. You are commenting about CC's price level and that is a different topic.

[NunoMCastro]

@oMikeo1234

That's completely random and makes no sense at all… It depends from country to country. Probably someone in Germany can, easily pay a year of CC subscription in X days, but someone is Portugal or Greece will only do it in X+Y days. About your 2 or 3 days period to pay one year of CC… Yea right… 600€ - 700€ (without taxes) in 2 days? That's almost 8k € per month, and working only 22 days… If you include Saturdays, as many do, thats more than 9k€ a month. Not many can do that… As i previously said, it's perfectly doable to pay the CC subscription. The monthly fee are just a few hours of work in a month. But the problem is not that, the problem is the different prices just because Adobe wants them. There is no explanation on why we pay a lot more. That's the problem!

[alexandrospi]

With the current situation in Greece, a typical freelancer will need a month at best, to pay for one year of Creative Cloud. It is very expensive. I am glad the alternatives are getting stronger. The only app that doesn't have any serious alternatives is After Effects, in my opinion. Apple's Motion is nice but lacks some important functionality like scripting for example.

[jimbop]

Went to sign up for CC and was disgusted at the price differential between Europe and US. Where Adobe$ argument falls down is it does not answer why a number of countries such as Belarus, Georgia, Tunisia, Algeria, Morocco (and many others) are able to make their purchases in $ at the same rate as in the US. surely many of these countries are overall managed by their EMEA office.

[adobejunk1]

This should be job for European commission to handle. Hopefully sweet fine of 10% of Adobe turnover will teach them a lesson

[Riverboat2001]

Well this is another subscriber they've lost. They must think we're really stupid.

No wonder people pirate stuff.

Instead of subscribing I bought Lightroom from Amazon.

[n96ron]

if  you order creative  cloud online you can choose to pay in dollars. then you pay the same price like when you live in america