A federal parliamentary committee has recommended that consumers find ways to lawfully evade technology that allows IT companies to charge up to twice as much for their products in Australia.

The Standing Committee on Infrastructure and Communications found that Australian prices for IT products were up to double those charged overseas.

Companies can use geo-blocking to stop Australian consumers from buying their products online in other countries.

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.

Space to play or pause, M to mute, left and right arrows to seek, up and down arrows for volume. Listen Duration: 4 minutes 33 seconds 4 m 33 s Listen to the interview with Nick Champion Download 2.1 MB

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.

"High IT prices can have significant impacts given the critical role IT plays in many areas of Australian life."

He said the report had made 10 recommendations to lower prices, included educating Australian businesses on how to bypass geo-blocks.

Space to play or pause, M to mute, left and right arrows to seek, up and down arrows for volume. Watch Duration: 2 minutes 19 seconds 2 m 19 s A parliamentary inquiry has spent a year investigating what has become known as 'the Australia tax'.

"What we want to do is make sure that consumers are aware of the extent to which geo-blocking applies to them and the extent to which they can lawfully evade them," Mr Champion said.

"That seems to be an area where I think, what is the consumer's right to shop around, in effect."

Other key recommendations in the report included:

reforms to the Competition and Consumer Act and the Copyright Act to remove barriers to competition, foster innovation, and ensure consumer rights are not lost in the transition to digital content; and

reforms to the Competition and Consumer Act and the Copyright Act to remove barriers to competition, foster innovation, and ensure consumer rights are not lost in the transition to digital content; and action to reduce the impact of high prices on Australia's most vulnerable social groups – the disabled, students and low-income Australians

Consumer frustration over pricing inequality

Among the reasons given by company managers to the inquiry to explain price differences were: relative market size, exchange rates, wages, freight charges, local sales taxes, levies, import duties and the need to maintain separate websites and servers for Australian customers.

They also said they were charged higher costs by the entertainment industry for content destined for the Australian market.

The president of the Australian Commercial and Media Photographers, Lisa Saad, said that despite the committee's recommendations, she doubted much would change for consumers.

As an example she said, Adobe software used mainly by professional photographers - Photoshop and Lightroom - cost the same now as it did when the IT pricing review began, "about 50 to 100 per cent more".

Sorry, this video has expired Matthew Rimmer discusses parliamentary report into IT pricing ( Kim Landers )

However, Mr Champion told the ABC's The World Today program that the existence of an inquiry had already prompted several companies to address pricing inequality.

"The whole inquiry has been a wake-up call to the IT products industry, no matter where or what they're selling or what they're doing," he said.

"There's obviously a fair bit of consumer frustration out there, particularly in the area of downloads - where people cannot see any real justification for such great differentials in downloads.

"We've seen some companies respond to that by lowering their prices, and I guess that's what we want to see - a competitive market where consumers are empowered, and where companies still make legitimate and decent profits as a result of their innovation."

The committee acknowledged that questions remained over the legality of circumventing geo-blocks, saying in its report there was "uncertainty as to whether such actions are legal in all circumstances".

Of particular concern was any potential breach of the Copyright Act.

Consumer group Choice, meantime, has published guidelines to help consumers circumvent geo-blocking.

Choice spokesman Matthew Levey told the committee that geographical restrictions were "increasingly making no sense" in a global marketplace.