Guild Wars 2

Currently, the following is true:

• N-A players pay 1.25 USD for 100 gems
• EU players pay 1.25 EUR for 100 gems
• Brit players pay 1.0625 GBP for 100 gems.

When I use the current conversion in USD, I get the following:

• N-A players pay 1.25 USD for 100 gems
• EU players pay 1.635 USD for 100 gems
• Brit players pay 1.62955625 GBP for 100 gems

The number for EU and Brits are roughly the same, so from now on, EU means EURO countries + Brits.

So the thing is that for the same amount of gems, an European player pays 1.3 times more than an American one.

So while I agree there might be some conversion tax, I can’t understand why European players pay 1 third more money than an American.

Fluctuations don’t explain everything as the EUR / USD ratio is usually between 1.25 and 1.35 and hasn’t been out of those boundaries for years.

So help me to understand. Because if I don’t understand, I start thinking that as an European, I’m the milking cow of Anet and that’s something that would push me away from buying any more gems, which I do once in a while.

cuz arena net ncosft dont have same respect for eu as for NA from whic they are thac about it , also eu got more money then us in general

The .25-.35 is mostly from VAT and the remaining from conversion rates/taxes.
http://www.wilmerhale.com/pages/publicationsandNewsDetail.aspx?NewsPubId=90219

It is the same case with several online companies (example: Blizzard). As it is legal to pass the tax to the consumers, they are doing so. In effect, Anet is not making anything extra.

This is common practice for companies that provide their service over the globe.
Same goes for steam, where the publisher still sets the price per country, yet this turns out to be a 1:1 conversion 9/10 times.

@Rikkieh: no, it’s not. I often see the prices of new AAA games on Amazon.[com|fr|de|co.uk] being roughly 60 USD for download only in the US, where they’re tagged at 50 EUR in Europe and you get a physical copy of the game.

@Zolkitten, so that means that taxes aren’t explicitly put on the price tag in the US?

no, it means different countries and/or geo-political regions have different systems of taxation.

Fror.2163:

@Zolkitten, so that means that taxes aren’t explicitly put on the price tag in the US?

That is correct. Taxes are not displayed on any price tags in the US. It’s an after-purchase tally.

In the US, there is sales tax (which varies by region), as well as other taxes on goods, depending on the goods. Some goods have no tax, some have one tax, some have several.
Again, depending on region (city, county, state). As well as use taxes on some items. All taxes are added to the total sale, usually taxes are not displayed on items. (A few items in stores are sold $XX.xx [including tax], but this is not the norm.)

Probably due to the fact that it costs more to do business with Europeans than it does with Americans and Brits.