Amazon has revealed that it will actually charge users of the international version of its popular Kindle ebook reader "significantly" more than originally thought compared to what their US customers pay for electronic books.

An Amazon spokesperson told the Guardian on Friday that non-US customers will be expected to pay $13.99 per book rather than $9.99 for each book, a 40 percent increase for the same title.

Amazon argued that higher operational costs outside the US forced the company to raise the price of books for foreign users. For example, said the spokesman, VAT on Ebooks are higher in the EU than on printed books.

They currently stand at five percent compared to 17.5 percent for audiobooks and other electronic books. The rise is in direct contradiction with Amazon's prior stand on the matter.

On the 7th of October, it claimed that "Wireless delivery is included in the price of the book for international customers so there are no additional charges."

However, it is only logical for Amazon to charge extra or else it would have been facing some steep losses for each downloaded book.

Its network partner, AT&T Global network, charges around one penny per KB (that's £10.24 per MB of data) or roughly £14.39 per book on average according to the Guardian.

Our Comments

A few things to keep the record straight. The extra charges that Amazon are charging are apparently almost entirely used up by value added taxes and data downloading charges. As for ripping of non US customers, well, Adobe, Microsoft and many, many others have done it in the past.

Related Links

Amazon admits: international Kindle users will pay more

(Pocket-Lint)

Amazon To Launch Kindle DX Worldwide In 2010

(ZDNet)

UK Kindle owners will be charged 40% more for eBooks

(Guardian)

Amazon admits international Kindle eBooks to cost more

(Redorbit)

UK Kindle owners to be charged 40% more for content

(Afterdawn)