Britons pay more to download films, books and music

TECHNOLOGY giants such as Amazon are hitting British families with far higher charges to download films, music and books than their American counterparts.

From Apple and Netflix to Spotify and Google Play, both single online purchases and monthly subscriptions to streaming services are more expensive in the UK, which has been treated for years as a Treasure Island by multinational companies.

For example, Spotify charges Britons £9.99 per month for its premium music service and access to the latest hits, which is a markup of almost 50 per cent compared to the US.

Apple, the richest and most successful company in the world, appears to be among the worst offenders. Its iTunes store was charging £13.99 to download the Oscar-nominated movie Whiplash last week – more than double the £6.74 charged in the US.

Insiders at the company suggested the discrepancy was the result of a short-term deal on the American site rather than a wider policy to penalise consumers in this country. But it also charges a set fee of 99p to download a single song in Britain, which is some 14 per cent more expensive than the 87p fee in the US. The cost of buying an album through iTunes here can be an extortionate £8.99 versus £5.39.

Similarly, Apple charged £8.99 for an iBook version of The Girl On The Train by Paula Hawkins, which was almost double what a US consumer would pay.

The differential pricing is most clearly seen with the firm’s soughtafter hardware. The cheapest version of its new Apple Watch is £299 in this country but just under £230 in the US – a significant difference of £69. Some of the differences are the result of the UK’s tax regime, with VAT in this country running at 20 per cent compared to an average of 5.5 per cent in the US.

The pattern of higher UK charges is repeated at the internet film and TV streaming service Netflix, which charges £6.99 a month for its standard service in the UK – adding up to £12 a year more than US Netflix.

Web retail goliath Amazon, which charges £79 a year for its Prime service for unlimited streaming of more than 15,000 film and TV titles in the UK, comes in at around £65 for Americans. The consumer champion Which? said: ‘UK consumers are getting a raw deal. Companies should play fair.’

Spotify said: ‘ Each time we launch in a new territory we need to negotiate with that country’s record labels and other rights holders in relation to music licensing fees. We set our pricing at the level we believe is fair for users, rights holders and Spotify.’