Regional Differences in Typeface Prices

[Jacky_Winter]

This topic was imported from the Typophile platform

Greetings fellow typophiles!

I'm a pretty new member here, and not sure if this has been addressed before. I did a search before and nothing came up, so here goes.

I was just wondering if anyone had any knowledge of why large foundries such as Veer and FontFont charge different prices for typefaces depending on what country you live in.

I've purchased alot of type in my time when I lived in the states, and this was never an issue. However I recently relocated to Australia and recently encountered this curious situation. It hasn't been an issue with independent foundries that have flat prices, but with the bigger houses, its another story.

Take Veer for example. I spec'd some typefaces for a job and went to the veer site to get the price which came up as 50.00 USD. I put the cost on the estimate to a client which gets signed off, and when it comes time to actually buy the typeface, I register with the site with my new Australian details, and the same typeface comes up as 50 Euro.

I emailed Veer about it, and this was the response I got:

"When you are not a registered user, you will be on the North American
website and therefore see the North American prices in USD. Previously
all transactions were based on USD but with a recent change in our
organization we started our operation in Europe/Asia/Australia. With
this start-up we also changed the website and introduced different
currencies.

This expansion means that we have started our business officially in
Europe/Australia with a Sales and Service Center in Berlin, Germany. In
the future customers in Europe as well as Australia will be supported by
the team in Berlin. This also means that territories supported by our
European call center will see the transactions in Euro. The currency and
the support is linked to the billing address. The prices are different
in several countries and adjusted to reflect the competition and the
price structure in Europe and also Australia."

The thing is, that the population of the entire country of Australia is about that of Manhattan alone. Budgets here are much, much, much smaller than North America. For one typeface, its not a big deal I know, but when you look at a collection, take Umbrella Type for instance which is around 5,000 USD for a US resident, is now 5,000 Euro for a European or Australian resident. A difference of thousands of dollars. No client here would ever sign off on that.

Fontshop also has differences in pricing, but at least its not just switching the currency sign, and the conversions come out a bit closer.

I am a passionate supporter of Veer and all their wonderful stuff. I love nothing more than buying type when I can, especially single faces for personal projects and experimentation. A practice like this just seems unsustainable to the community, and a bit annoying as well, as I have to get my family back in the states to buy type for me :)

I just wondered if anyone else had any thoughts on this. Am I just over reacting? Is it another case of a designer who has no grasp of basic economics? This just seems like a curious practice to me, essentially for something digital that has no extra costs associated with it (like shipping, etc). I'd love to hear anyones opinions or experiences! :)

Thanks!

[Katharina]

Welcome Jacky, and thank you for bringing this up. Just now I had a similar experience and did not dare post about it because I thought it is my lack of knowledge, being a dilettante.

I want to buy Penubmra Sans Bold and found prices ranging from 45 Euro (79 US $) at FontShop Austria down to 29 US $ at MyFonts; Font Shop International does not allow me to buy - does not even show the price - and refers me to FontShop Berlin which charges 39 Euro, Linotype wants 34 Euro. Go figure!

[Florian Hardwig]

This has been covered before.

Font Shop International […] does not even show the price

Katharina: If you want to know what the price would be if you were located in another part of the world, you can just use the drop-down menu on top.

[Dunwich Type]

I say this every time it comes up: people outside America pay so much more because in the end they break down and buy the stuff at the inflated prices. If you don’t like the prices you get, do what America does when we get high-prices: shop elsewhere or just don’t buy, and eventually the prices will come down.

Of course, our deranged central bank is inflating US currency and prices are going to keep rising, but I digress.

[aluminum]

"why large foundries such as Veer and FontFont charge different prices for typefaces depending on what country you live in."

To maximize profits. The Standard of Living varies so widely from nation to nation, it makes sense to price accordingly based on region.

This is true of most software companies and other 'virtual' products. Not to mention a variety of physical products as well. You can buy MS Office in the US for maybe $150 and in some countries, it'll cost you $5.

Purchasing products out of country is typically called the 'grey market'. Not necessarily illegal, but usually voids things like warranties and EULAs.

[Nick Shinn]

The online prices at shinntype.com are the same (in U.S. dollars) wherever the purchaser is. So the price will vary over time depending on the exchange rate of local currency against the U.S. $.

No doubt if I had the resources to throw at this, I could implement a differential pricing scheme too, and open offices around the globe.

[Bert Vanderveen]

Nick, I could be your European office…
For the difference between euro and dollar…
: )

. . .
Bert Vanderveen BNO

[Ricardo Cordoba]

"Previously all transactions were based on USD but with a recent change in our organization we started our operation in Europe/Asia/Australia."

I wonder if the recent change they mention is the acquisition of Veer by Corbis.

[Jacky_Winter]

I followed up with some feedback to Veer, who has been very gracious in trying to provide good service. I'll post it here in case anyone is interested.

"Thank you for your reply.

I can understand that it not as obvious that prices are adjusted for
different markets if it is "only " a digital file. Without going into
too much detail I would just like you to consider that it would be the
same with almost every product. In our case we have basically followed
industry standard and if you compare the prices you will find that we
are in the middlefield. Another thing to consider is also that with
opening an operation and production in Europe we have other costs as
well which are reflected in the prices in Europe as well.

Now pricing is a very complex subject for which a lot of other factors
are important that I will not be able to discuss and reveal which you
can certainly understand.

However we do value feedback like this and I will pass this on to our
Product Management team for consideration. It is important for us to
hear what our customers have to say and we would not just disregard this
(even though I will not be able to change the price for you!).

With regards purchasing from a North American account: as long as you
have a billing address in the US, you will be able to do this."

I've had a read of the other threads that have been pointed out here, thanks very much for that. Some very interesting debates on the subject however I still feel that this is an unfair practice. Oh well. The world's not fair I guess, or I was just too spoiled from my North American upbringing. Thanks for everyones feedback though!

[Ralf H.]

Is it another case of a designer who has no grasp of basic economics?

Well, yes. No product has a "universal value". Prices may only "suggest" a certain value. But the perfect price is based on supply and demand. And the demand is different is every nation. When a European customer is willing to pay 200% of the price in the U.S., then he probably also earns 200% for his job, compared to a designer in the U.S.
When the font vendor would try to raise the prices to 200% everywhere, they would loose their U.S. customers. When they keep it to 100% everywhere, they loose money, because the European customer is willing to pay more. So it's perfectly normal charge different prices in every nation.

[Bert Vanderveen]

Gasoline in Venezuela is 8 cents US a gallon.
In the Netherlands it’s 836 cents.
Same stuff, different markets.

. . .
Bert Vanderveen BNO

[DTY]

If a business actually operates in more than one country (as opposed to selling internationally from one country), they may be required by law to list prices in the local currency. Unless they want to keep changing prices every day, the different local prices are going to get out of sync due to exchange rate fluctuations. A lot of prices treat the euro as roughly equivalent to the dollar, which was true some years ago - it isn't true now, but why change if Europeans are still willing to pay? It's not so much that European prices are high as that American prices have, in effect, sunk recently.

[Don McCahill]

> When a European customer is willing to pay 200% of the price in the U.S., then he probably also earns 200% for his job, compared to a designer in the U.S.

You think?

(How much is a ticket to Europe these days? ... and can I get it cheaper with an address here, or over there).

[Dunwich Type]

When a European customer is willing to pay 200% of the price in the U.S., then he probably also earns 200% for his job, compared to a designer in the U.S.

Someone sign me up for a job in Europe!

[aluminum]

The confusion is when the whole concept leaps into the realm of the digital world given that one's physical location really no longer matters.

[Ralf H.]

You think?

Yes, I do.
(But I should mention, he probably also pays 200% for his rent, for gas and so on …)

[Diner]

How do taxes play into this equation? Would say a VAT increase the retail price of a font bought in Euros or from a European country?

Stuart

[tomii]

I personally stopped buying fonts from Veer, when they increased European pricing. Luckily there are other shops, that sell fonts in USD to Europe.

[dan_reynolds]

>How do taxes play into this equation? Would say a VAT increase the retail price of a font bought in Euros or from a European country?

I think so! If you buy a font from a European website, they will include the VAT in the amount they charge you. I think that, if you are not a European, you can get your VAT back, but not from the company you bought from, but rather from the country in which that company operates. I have never tried this myself, however.

Alternatively, you may be able to call up the company, and prove somehow that you don't have to pay VAT. They they could sell you the font VAT free offline I guess. But I'm not a tax specialist! Anyway, I think that the onus is on the buyer to prove he doesn't have to pay VAT tax. Europeans selling goods have to collect the VAT tax and pass it on to their governments.

VAT can be like 20%, too. It varies from country to country. IIRC, the price difference between Apple computers sold in the US and Germany for a time was pretty much just the different between with VAT and without. For Americans who live in states with low (or no) sales taxes, VAT may be difficult to understand. Different countries operate under different systems. If you shop from a company in a different country, you have to accept the way that their system operates, not expect them to change their business to operate the way that you are used to (this would be illegal for them anyway…).

[Ralf H.]

In Europe VAT is required if the vendor and the customer have their address in a country of the European Union. If the customer is from outside the European Union or if he is in a different EU country and can provide a Value added tax identification number, no VAT is/shouldn't be charged.
But only "consumers" care about VAT anyway, the B2B "customers" don't. Therefore FontShop Germany shows the prices without VAT, because their B2B customers don't care about the VAT.
In my shop all prices are shown including VAT, but if you register and your address is outside the EU or you have a Value added tax identification number the VAT will automatically be removed from your invoice.