Pat Phelan raved against the “Paddy tax” levied by O2 for their sale of the iPhone in Ireland when compared against the comparable deal in the UK. The devil is in the details of the minutes and the data limits of the plan. And it seems that Alexia Golez has found another instance, again by O2.
The real kicker is that a “Paddy Tax” has been around for years. I wouldn’t subscribe to a magazine subscription because, unlike my UK counterpoints, the subscription increased the cover price in Ireland. Similarly go in to a shop which displays prices in both sterling and the “Euro in Ireland” price… and a quick currency conversion proves that the sterling price is actually cheaper. Even the big UK supermarket chain, (OK Tesco) tends charge a higher price for the same goods Ireland when compared to the price in the UK. Comparing shopping baskets simply shows that despite all the talk of a lack of price fixing… a paddy tax applies.
There is however one exception to all this… the price of the shopping basket seems a little lighter when viewed from the German side.
and on a “Fluffy” note, someone (don’t know who yet) Damien Blake has set up PaddyTax.com. Lets see if it will document all instances of the tax, and not just the “technical” one.
take care,
Will
Tags: Alexia Golez, business, Ireland, Pat Phelan, Rip-Off
March 5th, 2008 at 11:55 am
According to Twitter, it was Damien Blake (our blogging councillor from Letterkenny) that set up paddytax.com: http://twitter.com/patphelan/statuses/766994231
March 5th, 2008 at 12:07 pm
Guilty as charged. I haven’t a clue what to do with it, but I saw this morning that the domain was available. It’s currently scraping google alerts to get mentions of Paddy Tax, until we can come up with something. All suggestions very welcome!
March 5th, 2008 at 1:22 pm
I would suggest that you include all “Rip-Off” aspects when compared to other countries in the EU. Price gouging is price gouging.