[extropy-chat] Re: european imports

[Christian Weisgerber]

scerir <scerir at libero.it> wrote:

> so you can choose your favorite and also realize
> the price, in Euros, in Italy.
> Look, the cheapest place in Europe is Belgium,
> dunno why, but there are very different prices,
> in the range +/- 10%, or even more, for the same
> model, through Europe.

Automobile pricing in the EU is a mess due to wildly different
taxation schemes.

For example, in Denmark there is a high (purchase?) tax on cars.
So in order to offset this, manufacturers sell their cars cheaper
in Denmark.  Some enterprising Germans quickly realized that they
could buy a car in Denmark at low cost and not have to pay the
Danish tax since they would immediately export the car to Germany.
Similary gains are to be made between various other countries.  In
fact, the EU is much in favor of such cross-border trade.  The car
manufacturers aren't, obviously, so they ordered their dealerships
not to sell cars to foreign customers.  When the EU got wind of
this, they brought anti-trust suits against the car companies,
resulting in heavy fines.  Of course the car companies are still
trying to curb cross-border sales using more discreet means.

-- 
Christian "naddy" Weisgerber                          naddy at mips.inka.de