I want to make a couple of suggestions here, and I thought a new thread was warranted to discuss possible solutions. It really is rubbish price gouging, and certainly leaves me thinking very seriously about any purchases.

What I want to know from CCP is -- what can you do about it? I get that Sony sets the prices, not you, but you are not without power. Here are a couple of options, and I am wondering if they are within your power to protect your customers:
1. Alternative purchase method -- can you make these various items available for purchase via your own Dust 514 website, and directly credit those items to our character? You seem to have this facility already, such as for the suits given with the fanfest HD purchase.
2. Offer more in the pack -- since we're being charged 50% more, can you give those AU and NZ players 50% more goods with their purchase than the similarly named US packs? Perhaps you could boost the AUR + boosters in the packs to represent the intended value?

The Australian dollar is very close to parity with the US dollar, yet we pay 50% more. That's not an insignificant markup. This is the kind of thing that your chosen partner, Sony, does. Is the excuse taxes? Higher minimum wage? Bandwidth costs? Something else? Your company has managed to sell EVE Online as a digital good and service for years to Australians without needing to do these things. I don't believe for a second that there is any excuse from Sony other than "because we can".

What can you do to court and protect an important group of your players, customers, and community?

As in my original post, I offered two possible ways that CCP could resolve this issue, on the assumption that it is not within their power to request Sony fix its prices. If it turns out Sony can request Sony fix its prices, then great! That's the perfect solution. But if not, let's focus on what CCP can do.

After all, CCP likes us, and we like CCP -- so I would like to see what our friend CCP can do to fix this problem.

And on a related note, CCP should care about this for financial reasons too. Presumably CCP has chosen the prices it did, because it thinks these are the sorts of prices that will maximise their profits -- that is, the right balance between cost per purchase, and projected number of purchases. It seems pretty clear from this thread that by charging us up to 50% more they are NOT striking that balance, and are in fact upsetting and angering potential paying customers.

Add to this the evidence (is it true? I haven't checked) that Australia has a high piracy rate, and it's pretty clear that overcharging us isn't going to increase revenue. As for me, if some company has the balls to try and overcharge me, then in almost every case they just won't get my money. I'll either pay the normal price through alternative means, or I won't buy their product at all. Dust, I've made an exception, because I love the EVE universe, but I can guarantee you that I will be purchasing much less than I would if they charged the normal price. I considered treating my Dust character like a normal subscription. Set aside roughly that amount a month, and that's my contribution. But I won't be doing that with these prices. I'll get my character to a point, and then just enjoy the free game. Conclusion? Lost revenue for CCP.

After all, an equivalent "subscription" (dual boosters) for a Dust character works out to roughly the price of about two EVE accounts for me.

Thread has been appropriately pimped and people are being poked accordingly.

Hopefully there will be a devpost as a result but we haven't heard anything back yet. Will keep you posted.

However and most unfortunately Sony is responsible for price adjustment and international transactions involving multiple country zone purchases and thus set the adjusted prices based on taxes, tariffs, laws, and culture(which I think takes the largest of the blame). This has been always unfair to the AU, but then again Eve Online is not free to download in Germany either.

1. Alternative purchase method -- can you make these various items available for purchase via your own Dust 514 website, and directly credit those items to our character? You seem to have this facility already, such as for the suits given with the fanfest HD purchase.
2. Offer more in the pack -- since we're being charged 50% more, can you give those AU and NZ players 50% more goods with their purchase than the similarly named US packs? Perhaps you could boost the AUR + boosters in the packs to represent the intended value?

For this reason, I only ever use my US account. Screw the AU store, their inflated prices and limited content.

The Committee found Australians paid 42 per cent more, on average, for Adobe software such as Photoshop.

Microsoft products were 66 per cent more on average, while specialised 3D animation software was more than 50 per cent more expensive.

In addition, hardware, music, games and e-books all cost more in Australia than they do in places such as the United States.

Microsoft, Apple and Adobe each gave evidence to the committee as to why their goods were more expensive in Australia than other markets, but declined to comment on the committee's findings.

The committee's chairman, Nick Champion, said geo-blocking was unfair when used to segregate global markets in order to make bigger profits, and pointed to "significant impacts" on Australian consumers and businesses.

Just getting three of the tech industry's heavyweights to the parliamentary inquiry was a feat in itself. Adobe, Apple and Microsoft were all invited to attend the inquiry's earlier public hearings voluntarily.
In the end it took a summons to compel the companies to appear. Each had a different reason to explain the pricing disparities.

Recommendation 5
The Committee recommends that the Australian Government amend the Copyright ActGÇÖs section 10(1) anti-circumvention provisions to clarify and secure consumersGÇÖ rights to circumvent technological protection measures that control geographic market segmentation.

Recommendation 9
The Committee recommends that the Australian Government consider enacting a ban on geoblocking as an option of last resort, should persistent market failure exist in spite of the changes to the Competition and Consumer Act and the Copyright Act recommended in this report.

Recommendation 10
That the Australian Government investigate the feasibility of amending the Competition and Consumer Act so that contracts or terms of service which seek to enforce geoblocking are considered void.

TBH I don't really think this is CCP's fault. Blame tariff laws, taxes etc.

As a consultant, the issue of digital goods costing more in Australia etc. often pops up at work, and while companies shoulder some of the blame, the anti-tax evasion laws in Australia are also to blame.

Bumpity bump.

Additions to the Oceanic packs to make up for additional cost sounds like a reasonable compromise, and should be possible considering that Sony has decoupled the various markets so they can get away with charging us 50% more...

Please consider CCP, I purchased the Merc pack to support Dust, but I can't justify any additional purchases with the current setup.

Now that the Aussie dollar is dropping below parity with the US dollar you can rest assured that sony will increase the price to make up the short fall, and like many Australians I'll be sure to continue pirating the F out of everything sony.

Sorry I keep poking every so often and response is the same, CCP does seem rather limited by the laws of the lands. I think it be better to poke Sony instead.

Another big effect on pricing will be taxes, duties, tarriffs - sometimes peeps in particular regions get hit with double whammy taxes.