Currently consumers in Australia are being locked out of movie, book and technology websites because vendors don't want goods sold in Australia at prices cheaper than what Australian high street retailers are currently selling the same goods for.
Currently Amazon is offering several e books for US$9.95. The same hardcopy book is selling in Australia for $32.95 and $35.95.
In an exclusive interview with SmartHouse and ChannelNews, Samuels, who is a technology expert, has said that he is well aware of the issues that are emerging online, with "the pricing and the access to content and goods".
"The ACCC is currently watching this issue and I am well aware of some of the issues that are emerging. I own a Kindle that I purchased from Amazon and like a lot of people I have been stopped from downloading certain books because of regional restrictions," he said.
"Whether we have the laws to tackle some of these issues is a question that has to be asked. We are currently restricted by what we can do. Under Part 4 of the Trades Practises Act, we have the powers to take action over commercial pricing issues. The grey area is laws relating to parallel importing; recently proposed changes to these laws proposed by the Federal Minister Craig Emerson were rejected by the Government so there are restrictions on how far we can go," said Samuel.
"We need to open up competition, not restrict it, but to do this we need to have the powers to implement change. I am well aware of the way that IP addresses from Australia are being blocked when you go to buy something online I have experienced it first hand when I have gone to buy content."
