Break Law with your monthly payment

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I speak now from the Austrian and German Perspective

The monthly costs must include VAT by law here.they do not, they failed against law. I am sure that this is 99% for the whole EU area is

also, it is incomprehensible that they will cost in the U.S. and $ 14.99 in EU € 12.99! for $ 1 in exchange rate is currently at 0.7055 € ..

Now i ask you why we in the EU must bay 18:40 $? The correct conversion rate would be 10,58 € and not 12.99 €.

You should read again the eCommerce and tax laws from the countries where they want to sell the game.

I will, for review, the Austrian consumer protection and the tax authority or a letter in this regard and inform the competent authority of the EU addressed.

And revise your website in this regard soon before release.

You can easily solve the problem by simply a Global U.S. dollar price, and the state does not specifically be broken down to various currencies such as eg pounds and euros.

Easier it would give them worldwide at $ 14.99 without VAT and this can be by credit card, paypal payment, moneybookers, prepaid cards

or, as mentioned above, they expect to correct it with the included VAT summaryplot correct.

therefore they had not as a non-transparent tariff politic, the one who paid more than in the EU from the U.S..

For example, monebookers automatically calculates VAT and exchange rate for the buyer and seller



sorry that english is google translateor

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I think a multi-million dollar international company knows a little more than an armchair lawyer.

Don't worry. Theyre doing it right.

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Probably losing something in the translation. I'd like to assume Cryptic has researched the entire tax/currency exchange issue. It just appears to this fellow they have not.

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I think a multi-million dollar international company knows a little more than an armchair lawyer.

Don't worry. Theyre doing it right.

I bet M$, Intel and all the other somewhat monopolistic (US) companies had the same arrogance before they had to go to court for their crimes against competition in various parts of the world, heck, even in their own country.

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You should read again the eCommerce and tax laws from the countries where they want to sell the game.

Are you speaking into a mirror? ;)

European Union

The European Union Value Added Tax ("EU VAT") is a value added tax encompassing member states in the European Union Value Added Tax Area. Joining in this is compulsory for member states of the European Union. As a consumption tax, the EU VAT taxes the consumption of goods and services in the EU VAT area.

However Directive 2006/112 requires Member states to have a minimum standard rate of VAT of 15% and one or two reduced rates not to be below 5%. Some Member States have a 0% VAT rate on certain supplies- these Member States would have agreed this as part of their EU Accession Treaty (for example, newspapers and certain magazines in Belgium). The current maximum rate in operation in the EU is 25%, though member states are free to set higher rates.

S*cks to live in Germany, Austria, or anywhere else in a European nation who is a member state of the EU when you have to pay tax on "services" like subscriptions.

As for conversion rate, sorry, but what is charged in the US is going to be different than charged elsewhere, regardless of conversion rate. The overhead is probably for the increased cost of supporting International customers.

Atari/Cryptic: 1, Armchair tax lawyer: 0.

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lol european taxes.

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lol OP

:rolleyes:

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Lol US taxes. Where every hamlet can come up with their own tax rate. What a chaos.

VPN/proxy for the win. Nothing more fun than letting all those greedy online vendors (e.g. Steam, or now Cryptic/Atari) think you are "one of them". So instead of paying their ridiculous 1:1 conversion rate, you are allowed to pay in USD, which pretty much halfs the price.

Consumer: 1, Greedy sellers: 0

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I dont think that it is a issue for Cryptic to be honest. For one they can set a diffrent price for out of country costs as they have to do extra things and pay extra prices to have the game released in another country as they are a US based company. That means the game isnt made in your country and is subject to import laws and expenses. Also they must provide a link for the servers in the EU for customers otherwise EU latency would be horrendus to the point of unplayability. Thusly they have to pay a EU company a portion of their proffits to act as a hub for them over there (or they have to build one themselves which enters a whole new realm of hoops they would have to jump through.) So i can see how they would be able to justify charging people outside the US more money for subscription and the game.

As for the VAT if they are not based out of EU or any other countrys they are not bound by EU taxation law per say. Simply put they cannot be held responsible for collecting your VAT and turning it into your government since they are not based in EU but in the US. The responsibility for paying your taxes falls on you and I may be mistaken however I dont think they have to include your countrys taxes in their service price because they are not based in your country.


Simple fact: the world isnt fair, and Prices arent the same everywhere (I could show you plenty of examples)

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Hey Ricci68,
your objections are right - of course it´s annoying that EU Members like us ( I´m from germany ) always have to pay more for subscriptions than other states. STO will be my 6th MMO, so I´m familiarized with that - there is nothing we can do, except not playing the game, what won´t be an option for me, because I really like the game...
If you are afraid about the VAT, I think there is an easy solution for that: look into a famous online shop beginning with an "A" :D, for which I don´t want to advertise in this forum ;), and look for Game Time cards. You can order them there for 26,99€ ( with VAT ;) ) and you have 60 days of playing....

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Stop comparing different zones prices. It gets old and theres a reason why there has never been a legal case about it - they break no laws what-so-ever. Look at consumer law if in doubt.

And sucks to be a full EU member, lol eurozone.

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they already handle this, and know what to do....

why do you assume you wont be charged VAT... have you been charged yet?

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Stop comparing different zones prices. It gets old and theres a reason why there has never been a legal case about it - they break no laws what-so-ever. Look at consumer law if in doubt.

And sucks to be a full EU member, lol eurozone.

Bordering on racism?

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Bordering on racism?

being in the EU is nothing to do with race... so no its not even close to racism.

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The member countries may disagree. Anyway it was just a Q. ;)

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The member countries may disagree. Anyway it was just a Q. ;)

... or fail, depending upon how you look at it. ;) Nice avie btw for Xenon gas.

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The site clearly states that the prices advertised do not include VAT, and EU customers will be charged VAT.

Prices displayed are not inclusive of VAT for purchases from European Union (EU). VAT is charged in accordance with the local legislation in each member state and varies from 15%-25%.

When you go to actually pay (at least with PayPal - which says Champions Online in the branding) it adds on the VAT, so they're doing nothing wrong, as it does give you the full price that will be paid.

With regards to different pricing in different regions, well, the exchange rate is widely flexible, so tying it to that wouldn't be of much benefit to customers in the long run (I remember when the pound flunked and EVE Online had to put up their prices), it costs them more money to take money internationally, and they also have to worry about collecting VAT from customers in regions where those governments demand it, which is an additional cost. It does cost them slightly more, and they're always going to round up when converting prices.

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The site clearly states that the prices advertised do not include VAT, and EU customers will be charged VAT.

When you go to actually pay (at least with PayPal - which says Champions Online in the branding) it adds on the VAT, so they're doing nothing wrong, as it does give you the full price that will be paid.

Yup!

As for avoiding the tax, you can always use a different US-based address for billing to get around EU taxes since the payments are all online anyways. Whether that's ethical or not is up to you. I make no claims on that, just note the possibility.

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Thanks cipher and you def hav the best angry looking cardassian pic. Respect.