German? Your next iPhone or iPad just got more expensive.

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Germany's raising prices on iPhones and iPads.
Germany's raising prices on iPhones and iPads.
Photo: Stilgut

German iPhones and iPads are going to cost more in 2016, thanks to pesky copyright laws that will up the price of every Apple smartphone and tablet sold in the country.

To comply with new new private copying levies established by German trade association Bitkom in December, the price of iPhone 6s, iPhone 6s Plus and iPhone 5s prices have increased by around 5 euros for each model. Meanwhile, the iPad Air 2, iPad Air, iPad mini 4, iPad mini 2 and iPad Pro models each now cost 8 euros more.

Here’s the new prices, courtesy of Redmond Pie:

  • iPhone 6s, 16GB/64GB/128GB – € 744.95/€ 854.96/€ 964.95
  • iPhone 6s Plus, 16GB/64GB/128GB – € 854.96/€ 964.95/€ 1074.95
  • iPad Air 2, Wi-Fi only, 16GB/64GB/128GB – € 497.32/€ 597.33/€ 697.33
  • iPad Air 2, Wi-Fi + Cellular, 16GB/64GB/128GB – € 617.32/€ 713.33/€ 817.33
  • iPad Pro, 32GB/128GB/128GB Wi-Fi + Cellular – € 907.33/€ 1,087.33/€ 817.3

What’s with the price increase? Basically, it has to do with an agreement that Germany’s trade associations have made with rights holders, to cover “private copies” of media made to your iPhone or iPad. So if you’ve ever copied a movie or music file to your device – especially if that was pirated – this fee is supposed to help cover it.

Apple’s been adding the same fee to the price of Macs in Germany since 2010, so this move is, in a sense, long overdue. But it’s not exactly welcome news either way when an Apple product gets more expensive.

Source: Macrumors

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