Aussies paying 50pc more for digital downloads

TOM PULLAR-STRECKER

Last updated 05:00 19/07/2012

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Australia's information technology ''price gouging'' inquiry has hotted up after consumer group Choice said Australians were paying 50 per cent more than Americans for iTunes downloads, software and computer games.

New Zealand Communications Minister Amy Adams has asked officials here to keep tabs on the inquiry amid claims Kiwis are paying even more than Australians for such products.

Choice said Australians were paying, on average, 52 per cent more than American consumers for the same 50 top iTunes songs.

The Australian Financial Review reported that Apple had been granted a secret meeting with politicians in Canberra, instead of making a submission to the inquiry that would have been subject to public scrutiny.

Australian Home Entertainment Distributors Association chief executive Simon Bush, who represents several US movie studios, said technology was ''an easy target'' and he believed the inquiry was ''a bit of populism''.

The inquiry, by the Australian House of Representatives' standing committee on communications and infrastructure, was ordered in April by Australian Communications Minister Stephen Conroy.

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