House of Representatives Committees

| House of Representatives Standing Committee on Infrastructure and Communications

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At what cost? IT pricing and the Australia Tax

29 July 2013

© Commonwealth of Australia 2013
ISBN 978-1-74366-079-9 (Printed version)
ISBN 978-1-74366-080-5 (HTML version)

View the report as a single document - (PDF 858KB)

View the report as separate downloadable parts:


Preliminary Pages	(PDF 112KB)
Foreword Membership of the Committee Committee Secretariat Terms of reference List of recommendations

Chapter 1 Introduction	(PDF 103KB)
Context of the inquiry Conduct of the inquiry Engagement with industry Structure of the report

Chapter 2 Price discrimination and consumer impacts	(PDF 311KB)
What is International Price Discrimination? Greater consumer awareness Changing technologies Cloud computing and subscription models Geoblocking Warranties Evidence about price differences Availability of data Evidence by product category Hardware Software and digital downloads Ongoing subscription costs Music Games Impacts on consumers Consumers with low incomes Higher education sector Impacts on students People living with disability Legal considerations and international obligations Public Procurement Policy Library users Small business owners Impacts for Government procurement Committee comment

Chapter 3 Explanations for IT price differences	(PDF 239KB)
Responsibility for international price discrimination Addressing perceptions of price discrimination Advertised prices Market size Wages and occupancy costs Warranties ‘Green’ schemes Exchange rates Channel partners Localisation costs Responses by product category Hardware Software and digital downloads Music Games Books Policies and approaches to pricing Approaches to regional pricing Competition Managing markets Consumer views on cost claims Committee comment

Chapter 4 Copyright, circumvention, competition, and remedies	(PDF 614KB)
Balancing copyright interests Development of current legislative framework Copyright and competition in physical media Copyright and competition impacts of the shift to digital content Access to digital works Choice and immediacy of access IT pricing and copyright infringement Measures to limit access to content Technological protection measures Geoblocking Methods of accessing cheaper goods Legality of circumvention methods Possible remedies to address IT price discrimination Parallel importation restrictions Clarification of legality of measures Increasing competition and protecting consumer rights Options for removing geoblocking restrictions Options for voiding contractual arrangements Banning price discrimination Prospects for international cooperation The Trans-Pacific Partnership

Appendix A – Submissions and exhibits	(PDF 66KB)

Appendix B – Public hearings and witnesses	(PDF 41KB)

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