I’ve noticed that Apple products are significantly more expensive in Germany compared to the U.S. even after accounting for currency exchange. What causes this big price gap?

by Educational_Hour_602

23 comments

  2. Because companies basically took the price in USD, converted it 1:1 to Euros (even when the exchange rate was not close to it; or sometimes even worse), and then you add 19% VAT.

    so $3697 become 3779€ + 19% VAT

  3. Different layers of taxes, shipping, conversion rate would be my guesses.

    (by different layers I mean stuff like EU specific taxes, or import regulations etc.)

    Oh and also tax varies by state, and isn’t fixed to 19% like we have it.

  5. Its the VAT that is higher in germany. It is the second line ‘Enthaltene Mehrwertsteuer’ (includes VAT).

    If you exclude taxes for both, then you will end up with an euro price 3779 compared to dollar price 3742.

    So thats about 500 Euro more, i assume import taxes / custom duties, or maybe the US price does not have all taxes included (as i understand those can differ from state to state).

  7. First German Value Added Tax. Then Apple Import Taxes + 2 Years Warranty Cost Premium.

    If American policies remain same in the future, I am damn sure Apple would increase high prices more than needed everywhere in the world just to justify the price increase in US. More like giving social burden to other countries for American tariffs.

  8. They subsidise cheaper prices in US with higher prices in Europe.

  9. Two years of warranty that comes in GER by law. (One reason)

  10. The Dollar is super weak now, but they probably find a way to legitimize a price increase again. This time tariffs oder whatever.

  12. EU import duties and VAT.

    If you wanna get cheaper apple products and aren’t too far away i would suggest you to try getting them in switzerland, the price is not as good as the US but you can get stuff for 10-30% cheaper then most of the EU depending on the product.

  13. Could be the US price isn’t the final one. They add VAT when you try yo buy it. Where in Germany VAT is included and shown before.

  15. Tax. 19%. If you take 80% of the 4497 it’s around the same amount as in the US before tax.

  16. The German VAT is higher because they need to pay for all of Merkel’s guests.

  17. If I purchased this in the state where I live in the US, they would add a 9% sales tax.

  18. Weird that no one mentioned the number one reason: Because they can. Been like that for years. No amount of tariffs or taxes can make up for that kind of differences. They’re just dicks.

  20. Go on vacation to Canada:
    1) CAD is cheap for EUR
    2) depending on the province, the sales tax can be as low as 5%

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