Price comparisons. US to Europe

[Weeguy]

This is probably old news to many but for me it's new and I'm stunned.
Todays US price for the iMac version I have my eye on come the end of the month is $1,699 convert that to UK Sterling that's £1,224 or to France (Euro's) €1,404 Pretty simple really.
BUT, the UK price today is £1,649 (converts to US$ 2,289) or in France €1,899 (converting to US$ 2,297)
That's a massive price difference in anyones language and is way beyond what might be claimed as down to VAT or import duty/ transportation . How on earth can an item cost almost $600 more in these days of a so called global economy. You can't even blame the UK for leaving the EU seeing as the difference in price between a UK purchase and a European purchase and the USA is pretty much the same.
Just saying?

 

[leman]

I have to agree with you here. Usually, the price is pretty much USD converted + VAT (with some provision for volatility). But this time European prices seem to be consistently $100 up. Same in Switzerland.

 

[Anarchy99]

as a Canadian this has allways bugged me, usually after exchange its allways worse, honestly these iMacs are a rare exception.

but for example the last big iPhone release if I got the top of the line model and shipped it to my mailbox in Montana it was near $400USD cheaper (less bad on lower end configs)compared to buying it from apple.ca which is particularly egregious when you consider US or Canada they were drop shipped from the same Chinese factory

 

[jerryk]

Part of the difference may be in warranty. The US is one year only unless you pay the extra for Apple Care+ which extends to 3 years total and costs several hundred dollars additional. I seem to remember UK and EU laws require more than 1 year of warranty.

And there are taxes. US prices are listed without taxes since they vary from state to state (or even county to county) from 0 to 10%.

 

[neinjohn]

My advice on price is never to buy directly from Apple own stores and instead buy from resellers. At least on Portugal the main resellers have constant promotions on the M1 Macs and it started two weeks after launch.

With the discounted price it's constantly a direct conversion from the American price to Euro+VAT. I bought mine base Air for 1029€ for example.

 

[Lihp8270]

This is probably old news to many but for me it's new and I'm stunned.
Todays US price for the iMac version I have my eye on come the end of the month is $1,699 convert that to UK Sterling that's £1,224 or to France (Euro's) €1,404 Pretty simple really.
BUT, the UK price today is £1,649 (converts to US$ 2,289) or in France €1,899 (converting to US$ 2,297)
That's a massive price difference in anyones language and is way beyond what might be claimed as down to VAT or import duty/ transportation . How on earth can an item cost almost $600 more in these days of a so called global economy. You can't even blame the UK for leaving the EU seeing as the difference in price between a UK purchase and a European purchase and the USA is pretty much the same.
Just saying?

The US price includes no taxes at all. The UK pricing does.

Find what the federal and some state taxes are and add them on to the US price. Then compare

 

[Weeguy]

The US price includes no taxes at all. The UK pricing does.

Find what the federal and some state taxes are and add them on to the US price. Then compare

Is anyone really suggesting that the difference would be close to $600?I find that very hard to believe.

 

[Lihp8270]

Is anyone really suggesting that the difference would be close to $600?I find that very hard to believe.

I don’t know what federal and state taxes on a computer would be in US so ?‍♂️

 

[kobberrød]

Is anyone really suggesting that the difference would be close to $600?I find that very hard to believe.

Hmm, if you really want to compare just the net prices (sans tax), then for the UK this iMac is £1375 (around 1910 USD) = still +200$ comparing to bare US price.

 

[Mikael H]

Yep - this is frustrating. According to Swedish Customs, importing the $1699 model would land me at a total of SEK 18430 (excluding shipping, of course), which incidentally is very close to what the next lower priced model costs.
Apple's retail price for the $1699 model in Sweden is SEK 20995. So yeah, that's the difference between 8 and 16 GB of RAM or between 256 and 512 GB of storage at Apple's exorbitant prices down the drain for no good reason at all.

 

[The-Real-Deal82]

The price increase is absolutely outrageous and on most Apple products here in the UK. It’s probably why the Pro iPhones sell worst here than the standard iPhones etc. Macs are just another level again.

 

[leman]

Part of the difference may be in warranty. The US is one year only unless you pay the extra for Apple Care+ which extends to 3 years total and costs several hundred dollars additional. I seem to remember UK and EU laws require more than 1 year of warranty.

I had a similar though. The price difference is consistent with insuring against known failure rates.

 

[jerryk]

Is anyone really suggesting that the difference would be close to $600?I find that very hard to believe.

Taxes + warranty extension. Some countries get 3 years of warranty. The US has 1 year. Buying the 2nd and 3rd year in US runs around $300, with a $99 deductible on some repairs. $300 + (10% tax * $1700) = $470 USD. Not that far off. Then there is the ability of Apple to decide what they are going to repair or not repair, versus some sort of larger body saying you must repair.

 

[Weeguy]

OK, I'll answer this one and then we should call it quits as this was never intended as an argument, simply a way for me to suggest that I was less than pleased with the difference in European v US pricing of Apple products.
Tax in Europe is at a minimum, 17.5% and up to 28% in some cases so the US doesn't beat us there. UK statutory rights allows for "up to 6 years" warranty from time of delivery BUT that is for DEFECTIVE goods only. Is Apple worried that it's goods could be viewed as defective? The Apple standard warranty in the UK is for one year (same as the US) and there are additional costs to extend via AppleCare just as in the US, it's NOT free and we don't automatically enjoy a 5 year advantage to our warranty. That said I'll admit that state and sometimes other taxes are still to be added to Apple US advertised prices but c'mon Apple, give us Europeans a break please, we are still a pretty big market after all and you do want us to stay loyal don't you? Just saying.

 

[KeithJenner]

Our consumer rights are different, and do effectively give a warranty over 1 year (although very rarely anything like the 6 years).

There are quite a few stories about people getting service from Apple in the UK and Europe, where they would get nowhere in the US.

It probably doesn't justify the price difference, but the two are certainly not directly comparable in this area.

 

[DaveP]

Taking an educated guess at the commodity code for the iMac it looks like it is duty free, but of course has a 20% VAT. So that works out to about a 14% premium in the UK. Product liability laws are definitely much more consumer friendly in the UK. My previous recollection is the premium is typically more like 5-10%, but my memory could be faulty. Maybe Apple thinks the dollar will get stronger and doesn't want to adjust prices? Though prevailing thinking is that is likely not the cause.

Maybe Tim Cook will jump on and explain, haha.

 

[grandM]

European prices don't make sense. The increase in price cost apple market share. Their gross would be larger if they brought down prices in Europe. Europe has become an android / windows continent. I love apple products but when pricing is taken into consideration I get why the European customer leaves the store with a non apple device. At 1,400 euro they would sell as crazy. 1,900 is a small fortune.

 

[thekev]

How on earth can an item cost almost $600 more in these days of a so called global economy.

I would make sure you remove VAT before comparing to US pricing. We do have sales tax in the US, but it varies by state and county. It's not applied at the federal level. It makes more sense to compare base prices without it if you want to determine similarity in retail pricing.

 

[AppliedMicro]

I have to agree with you here. Usually, the price is pretty much USD converted + VAT (with some provision for volatility). But this time European prices seem to be consistently $100 up. Same in Switzerland.

Net prices in Europe have always been higher in Europe than in the US. About 10% or a bit more at the time of the respective product release.

Since the USD has lost value recently and Apple only very rarely adjusts their retail prices for FX rate fluctuations, the relative difference is probably higher on their "older" product at the moment.

No small change, to be sure - but at least in countries that (effectively) provide statutory 2-year warranties or longer, I wouldn't call it outrageous either.

 

[The-Real-Deal82]

The consumer rights laws are vastly superior in Europe compared to the US and product warranties are longer. However, I’m not sure the price increases are justification for that personally. How much is an iPhone 12 Pro after tax typically in the US? I know it differs depending on State but but is a ballpark figure?

 

[Weeguy]

European prices don't make sense. The increase in price cost apple market share. Their gross would be larger if they brought down prices in Europe. Europe has become an android / windows continent. I love apple products but when pricing is taken into consideration I get why the European customer leaves the store with a non apple device. At 1,400 euro they would sell as crazy. 1,900 is a small fortune.

Well said, if they adopted the Alan Sugar credo of 'pile them high and sell 'em cheap' (or at a similar price to the US) products would fly from the shelves and they'd have to ramp up production.

 

[Lihp8270]

You also need to consider the cost of distribution in the UK vs USA.

Fuel costs, drivers, warehouse staff, store staff for people in shops etc, rental prices of commercial spaces, business rates to operate, etc

 

[KeithJenner]

You also need to consider the cost of distribution in the UK vs USA.

Fuel costs, drivers, warehouse staff, store staff for people in shops etc, rental prices of commercial spaces, business rates to operate, etc

Does the US not have any of those things?

I assume you are saying that those costs are different in the UK and US. Maybe true, but probably not all that much difference on a per device basis, maybe a couple of pounds.

 

[The-Real-Deal82]

You also need to consider the cost of distribution in the UK vs USA.

Fuel costs, drivers, warehouse staff, store staff for people in shops etc, rental prices of commercial spaces, business rates to operate, etc

Goods do travel less miles but at the same time we pay £1.30 a litre for fuel here (£5.85 a gallon - $8.12) by comparison I suppose.

We do pay more for goods but then we get 32 days holiday every year and many other benefits that aren’t common in the US. I just don’t buy the greatest of each Apple product as I can’t justify our costs here but it works for me.

 

[ader42]

So to wrap-up, that £1649 (inc VAT) iMac would more reasonably cost £1449 (inc VAT) in the UK if Apple were to price equate and include all the shipping/import costs etc. as they do for the US.

No different to any other US imports in my opinion. I recently bought expensive non-Apple headphone gear from the US, paid shipping costs, import duty and VAt and still paid a lot less than buying here in the UK.

At least the additional “cost” with Apple kit is only around 14% and you could easily get half of that off the price by buying from an Apple Reseller instead of direct - just as I can with an M1 Mac Mini etc. I expect I will be able to order that £1649 iMac for £1599 to £1549 soon enough.