Consumers purchasing an iPhone or iPad in Germany are now being asked to pay slightly more for Apple’s popular gadgetry as of January 1st. Not exactly the new year’s gift that German Apple fans would have wanted, but it seems that the company has been forced to pass on the slight increment due to the issuance of new private copyright levies that have recently been agreed to in Germany. This increase means that those looking to purchase an iPhone or iPad in Germany will now pay between 5-8 euros more.
The agreements that have forced this raise in iPhone and iPad prices were agreed to and published in principal during December 2015 by the German digital trade association, Bitkom, and a number of collecting societies that fall under the central office for private copying rights collective.
Those looking to purchase an iPhone 6s, iPhone 6s Plus, or an iPhone 5s will now need to part with an additional 5 euros on top of prices published on the Apple website on December 31. Consumers looking to buy an iPad Air 2, iPad Air, iPad mini 4, iPad mini 2, or iPad Pro will have to shell out an additional 7-8 euros. Here’s a brief rundown of the new prices as seen on the Apple Germany website:
- iPhone 6s, 16GB/64GB/128GB – € 744.95/€ 854.96/€ 964.95
- iPhone 6s Plus, 16GB/64GB/128GB – € 854.96/€ 964.95/€ 1074.95
- iPad Air 2, Wi-Fi only, 16GB/64GB/128GB – € 497.32/€ 597.33/€ 697.33
- iPad Air 2, Wi-Fi + Cellular, 16GB/64GB/128GB – € 617.32/€ 713.33/€ 817.33
- iPad Pro, 32GB/128GB/128GB Wi-Fi + Cellular – € 907.33/€ 1,087.33/€ 817.3
It’s likely that a lot of frustration and disappointment will fall Apple’s way for this price hike, but the Cupertino-based company is merely falling in line with copyright levies that must be placed on purchases of recordable media devices by manufacturers and suppliers. It may not actually seem like good news, but things could have been worse considering the collecting societies had originally demanded levies on devices of this nature to be a lot higher in the German market. It was only through negotiation by Bitkom that an agreement was made, as Bitkom CEO Dr. Bernard Rohleder points out:
Unfortunately, the agreements had come only after tough negotiations concluded. Originally, the collecting societies had demanded up to 36 euros for mobile phones and 12 euros for tablets. With the agreement, we have not only the company, but above all the consumer saved from much higher taxes.
It’s likely that those purchasing this type of hardware from within Germany are already familiar with these types of price hikes. A similar price hike was placed on Apple Mac computers in 2010 due to similar circumstances.
(Via: MacRumors)
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