Pricing Discrimination

[DeletedUser116796]

Please could somebody explain why inno practices pricing discrimination for diamond purchases contrary to EU law?

- As an EU National or resident you can't be charged a higher price when buying products or services in the EU just because of your nationality or country of residence.

In practice this means,

- when one country in the EU gets an offer for 200% diamonds, all other countries should have it available.
- Users should be able to select currency for payment instead of being forced to pay in a specific one.
- There must be a genuine reason for price differences between countries. (delivery costs, bank processing fees etc)

An example:

Currently in Denmark, 33,000 diamonds costs 599DKK, equivalent to 80.27 EUR
In Ireland, 11,000 diamonds costs 79.99 EUR.
In the UK, 11,000 Diamonds costs 74.99 GBP, or 87.27 EUR.

This is in my opinion unlawful, and flagrant as it has been going on over a long period and Innogames have been aware the practice. Could somebody explain to me why this practice exists, and why it is okay please?

 

[DeletedUser113901]

- when one country in the EU gets an offer for 200% diamonds, all other countries should have it available.

The offer is to an account, not a country.

 

[DeletedUser116796]

The offer is to 1 account.

It's to specifically targeted accounts in specific countries.

Even if this is proven not the case, and they prove they have a lawful non discriminatory way of targeting the promotions [and the company would have the onus to prove this], the other issues raised are still valid.

 

[Forwandert]

Could be worse.. you could buy on the app and get even less diamonds for your money. Think it's 10,000 diamonds for £74.99 paying from the UK on the app. Apparently due to google/apple fees but doesn't apply to every app game inno have.

 

[DeletedUser116796]

Could be worse.. you could buy on the app and get even less diamonds for your money. Think it's 10,000 diamonds for £74.99 paying from the UK on the app. Apparently due to google/apple fees but doesn't apply to every app game inno have.

I was considering adding this point to the OP, but the bold is valid reasoning unfortunately. To a large extent tt's up to the company to determine proportionate fees, and you always have the option to go the browser version and get more.

It's not like the currency thing, where you are forced to pay £74.99 (87.27 euros) because they refuse to let you pay in euros at 79.99 which is clearly discriminatory.

 

[Forwandert]

I was considering adding this point to the OP, but the bold is valid reasoning unfortunately. To a large extent tt's up to the company to determine proportionate fees

Maybe, but as I said other games that innogames provide do not charge any variance between app and browser regardless of google/apple. So if it's due to external charges there is no reason that this particular game has nearly a 10% reduction in diamonds and other games by the same company with the same app/browser options do not.

 

[DeletedUser116572]

perhaps there is another way to look at the pricing differences
everyone who is on the international server pays the same price regardless of where they live
everyone who is on the german server pays the same price regardless of where they live
and so on

is it clear that inno is breaking the law in this regard

take a look at amazon
on amazon.nl the kindle version of the michelle obama book becoming sells for eur 9,99
on amazon.de the kindle version of the same book sells for eur 19,99

perhaps there are nuances to the law of which us lesser folk are not aware

 

[Agent327]

This is in my opinion unlawful, and flagrant as it has been going on over a long period and Innogames have been aware the practice. Could somebody explain to me why this practice exists, and why it is okay please?

If it is unlawful you can do something about it. That's why there are laws and a court system. Whining about it will never get you anywhere.

 

[DeletedUser116796]

perhaps there is another way to look at the pricing differences
everyone who is on the international server pays the same price regardless of where they live
everyone who is on the german server pays the same price regardless of where they live
and so on

is it clear that inno is breaking the law in this regard

take a look at amazon
on amazon.nl the kindle version of the michelle obama book becoming sells for eur 9,99
on amazon.de the kindle version of the same book sells for eur 19,99

perhaps there are nuances to the law of which us lesser folk are not aware

Amazon is fine, because they give all citizens a chance to use all the sites. It's a very common thing here in the UK for us to buy from Amazon.nl or Amazon.it as the prices are better.

The problem is inno 'locks in' your currency, thereby removing that choice.

If it is unlawful you can do something about it. That's why there are laws and a court system. Whining about it will never get you anywhere.

It's best to ask about something before going the legal route. And before filing suit in the district court you'd likely ask ECC-Net to mediate too. Of course you can simply ask Amex to reverse the charges, or immediately file a writ, but it's not really how it's done.

 

[Agent327]

It's best to ask about something before going the legal route.

You are not asking. You are making a statement. You word it in a question and that question is: "Please could somebody explain why inno practices pricing discrimination for diamond purchases contrary to EU law?". You can hardly call that a question and this isn't Inno, so what kind of answer do you expect?

If you have a problem with it take action. If not, stop whining.

And before filing suit in the district court you'd likely ask ECC-Net to mediate too. Of course you can simply ask Amex to reverse the charges, or immediately file a writ, but it's not really how it's done.

But complaining on a forum is?????

 

[DeletedUser116796]

You are not asking. You are making a statement. You word it in a question and that question is: "Please could somebody explain why inno practices pricing discrimination for diamond purchases contrary to EU law?". You can hardly call that a question and this isn't Inno, so what kind of answer do you expect?

If you have a problem with it take action. If not, stop whining.



But complaining on a forum is?????

Fortunately I don't live in a country where you are not allowed to 'whine' when you are ripped off as a consumer.

A fundamental freedom here is to be able to 'whine' in such circumstances, and indeed post in forums where other people may have been a victim of the same unlawful practice to discover their views and allow them to 'whine' too. This is how class action suits are often built; lots of 'whining' and establishing a pattern of behaviour from the company.

If Inno respond negatively/are unresponsive here and as a result 20 people complained to ECC-Net, the impact will be far greater.

What is your problem with such 'whining' ?

 

[Agent327]

Fortunately I don't live in a country where you are not allowed to 'whine' when you are ripped off as a consumer.

A fundamental freedom here is to be able to 'whine' in such circumstances, and indeed post in forums where other people may have been a victim of the same unlawful practice to discover their views and allow them to 'whine' too. This is how class action suits are often built; lots of 'whining' and establishing a pattern of behaviour from the company.

Now what is it? Unlawful or not? Make up your mind!

If Inno respond negatively/are unresponsive here and as a result 20 people complained to ECC-Net, the impact will be far greater.

Inno will never respond here, so consider them unresponsive and start your action!

 

[Emberguard]

200% discounts aren't based on country but rather player account and should be available through all servers. However it can take a while for the specific deal you want to appear unless it's offered on a specific basis

Base prices on the other hand, you could put feedback here to be passed on but if you want a direct response from Inno you need to contact support. Otherwise if you're ok with posting feedback for the purpose of it being passed on without worrying about getting a official statement on how well it was received for each specific item the forums are the right place. The main feedback you'll get from Inno through the forums will be from the announcement section.

What I have noticed is if I buy on the app for the EN server it uses my countries currency. If I buy on the desktop for EN server it defaults to $US. It's plausible because it's a apple app it uses the currency based on the country of my itunes account - but it's just speculation there.