I think it would be a good idea if the pricing was a little more transparent. If the product had a price before any taxes that was say $35, £22, 26 euro per month and then apply any local taxes etc people wouldn't think they were getting ripped off. As it stands with today's exchange rate, $49.99 is £31.08, add VAT at 20% you end up with £37.29 but on the Adobe site its £46.88. What makes up the nearly £10/month difference? That's $16/month after tax has been applied!

This is a 'cloud' product, no discs, no packaging, no paper manuals, nothing physical so no duty to pay on import. But as Adobe has a UK presence, this wouldn't apply anyway.

There are, quite probably, a few small additional costs that we don't know about but £120/year difference plainly looks like Adobe are taking the piss.

I used to be in electronics retail many years ago and there was a £ for $ practice that was widely used. If it's $99 over there then it's £99 over here. This wasn't anything to do with making it easier for the accountants as they still had to work out how much tax and duty to pay, it was just greed on the part of the businesses that practised it as that extra margin was pure profit.

I just had a quick peek on the apple store, USA new iPad starting at $499, UK £399, much closer when you do the sums, the UK price is only £20 more than it should be after VAT. So how come some companies can do it and not others?

tl'dr Price consistency and transparency makes happier consumers