Australians will be blocked from shopping on Amazon’s international websites and restricted to using its smaller local platform as the e-commerce giant responds to the government’s new GST rules on online purchases.
Of course old mate Gerry Harvey had plenty to say on the self imposed redirection that Amazon announced yesterday.
“They’ve done the dirty on the government. They’ve done the dirty on the public.” cried Mr Harvey, no doubt with his head angled towards the sky and his fist pumping in rage.
Not only will Australians be unable to access the US (or any other) Amazon store should they gain access through other technical methods will be unable to ship their items to Australian addresses.
The end result is access to an awfully poor selection of items in the current store at inflated prices four times or more above the cost of buying it from the US and shipping it here currently.
The new redirection will start July 1st at the same time as the government’s new GST collection rules for overseas vendors begin.
Source: Amazon to block US website for Australian shoppers over GST rules