[jvandenbroeck]

Yeah I hate it when I have to pay more for a service as a European.

It might seem silly but that's the reason I cancelled my Spotify account, I didn't want to pay a 'European' premium. I hate it when they check from which country your creditcard number is - Netflix is nice that they allow you to register in a different country with a VPN & don't check the credit card country.

[simonbarker87]

I get what you mean but seeing as Spotify is a European company and launched in the US a long time after Euro launch it's more like a US discount.

[vacri]

Don't move to Australia then. Software prices are routinely jacked up for us. At least with conversion to the euro, there's a large amount of laziness in it. With Australian software, we're often paying 50% more to double the price. At one stage it was cheaper to buy Photoshop by flying across the Pacific ocean, buying a copy in the US, and flying back to Australia.

[maccard]

Every time I see this I feel compelled to point out that Europe gets it worse than you, despite your complaints.

Say 100 AUD for a game. That's roughly 70 euro (which is the cost of a new PS4 game in Ireland). The median household income in Australia is 66k (AUD) or 47000 euro. The only source I can find for a median income in ireland states it at around 27000 euro. The purchasing power of an Australian in that case is far higher than an Irish person for instance.

[vacri]

Median income isn't the whole story. Disposable income is a better story (particularly for entertainment), and Ireland in US$24k, Australia $31k. In Germany (the most populous European country that no-one questions is in Europe) it's US$30k. France is US$29.5k. (stats from OECD). Norway, with the same size population as Ireland, is more than Australia at US$32k. Australia isn't really as far ahead of Europe as you paint it. Picking one of the poorest countries in Western Europe and using that as the baseline isn't really playing fair.

These links have the country's median household disposable income listed in the first paragraph.

  http://www.oecdbetterlifeindex.org/countries/ireland/
  http://www.oecdbetterlifeindex.org/countries/australia/
  http://www.oecdbetterlifeindex.org/countries/germany/
  http://www.oecdbetterlifeindex.org/countries/france/
  http://www.oecdbetterlifeindex.org/countries/fill-in-the-blank-here-or-just-click-on-a-flower/

[rtpg]

Well VAT is usually levied on online services but sales tax isn't so it's normal for you to pay at least ~20% more.

The Internet doesn't make companies immune to taxes

[aianus]

You can register in your home country for Netflix and the available shows will still be determined by your VPN's IP.

[furyg3]

Yes, if you're in Germany your programming is for Germany whether or not you have a US or German account.

The bad news is that you'll have to use a VPN to pretend to be from some other country (US) in order to get some of the shows not offered in your own country (Germany).

The good news is that you can use a VPN to register for Netflix (and pay less!) and get the same content as you would get if you registered in Germany.

The last time I checked some Netflix features (watch list?) were disabled if you are 'traveling' outside your region.

[skrause]

How can you see German programming in Netflix when it doesn't even exist yet in Germany? They're supposed to launch here in two weeks, but as far as I know nothing is available yet.