One of Adobe’s main competitor’s has berated the firm for what it describes as predatory pricing.
Sam Chandler, founder of Nitro, a provider of document productivity and workflow solutions, which opened its EMEA office in Dublin earlier this year, said he could not understand why Adobe charges such varying prices for electronic downloads of its products from country to country.
In summer 2013, for example, a downloaded copy of Adobe Creative Cloud cost about $50 in the USA, and the equivalent of $73 in the UK and $82 in Germany.
Chandler said: "Speaking very bluntly, Adobe has a history of price gouging in the UK market, Europe and Australia. They charge more for the same thing delivered electronically there and it’s insulting to the customer’s intelligence.
"If I was a customer and I saw that I was a victim of essentially predatory pricing I would feel like that company was calling me stupid. The fact that you would charge more for exactly the same thing is nonsensical and staggering to us."
Nitro, instead translates directly from its dollar price into local denominations, he explained, which he feels limits the number of people who would try to obtain copies of the company’s products illegally.
He said: "Piracy is a contemporary topic for us at the moment because we’re looking at this issue and its impact on our global support.
"Everything’s hackable, at the end of the day. It just depends how much effort you’re prepared to put in. The hardcore people who hack this stuff can always find a way but most people can’t be bothered."
CBR approached Adobe for comment but had not received a response by time of publishing.
