Redditor discovers CS6 price loophole

If you're unhappy with paying more than the US for Adobe Creative Suite 6 (CS6), one Reddit user seems to have found a way to dodge the price hike by using Adobe's own website.

(Credit: Adobe Systems)

In a photo walkthrough posted to the "Australia" sub-Reddit, user mrWLSN states that he started out wanting to upgrade a legal copy of Creative Suite 5.5 Design Premium to the CS6 equivalent.

The user intended to purchase a copy of CS6, and found that the transaction had been processed through Adobe's US store. MrWLSN's Adobe ID is registered to the Australian store, meaning that the US store returned an error when trying to check out.

The user thought that by changing the country reference in the URL from "US" to "AU", the browser would redirect the transaction through the Australian store, therefore updating the product to the Australian price of $569, rather than the US price of US$375.

Instead, the store with the AU reference in the URL returned the same price as the US store. MrWLSN was able to complete the transaction at the lower price, and got a copy of the serial number minutes later.

"I received Adobe CS6 at a fair price through Adobe's own website," mrWLSN said, while denouncing the company's price-gouging efforts in Australia.

Adobe has long been known to charge more for its products locally as part of a price-gouging trend that has been dubbed the "Australia tax".

Adobe is charging Australians considerably more for a copy of CS6, with some configurations of the software costing an additional $1350 for the same kit as our US counterparts.

Federal MP for Chifly, Ed Husic, has long been campaigning for a fair price for technology imported into Australia from other countries, and looks set to get his way after Communications Minister Stephen Conroy announced an inquiry into the matter.

Adobe told ZDNet Australia that it has no comment on the upcoming inquiry.

ZDNet Australia is still waiting on comment from Adobe regarding this new loophole.