Europeans Won’t Be Happy With This Apple Update

Apple’s (NASDAQ:AAPL) App Store shut down temporarily for scheduled maintenance on Thursday in order to raise prices for its European customers.

The incremental price increase shifted the base price for its apps from €0.79 to €0.89. According to the website Cult of Mac, prices increased in Spain, the Netherlands, Germany, France, Belgium, and several other European countries.

Furthermore, Apple announced that currencies from eight different countries were added to the store, including the Russian Ruble, the Turkish Lira, the Indian Rupee, and the South African Rand.

Apple has been a huge winning stock pick for Wall St. Cheat Sheet Newsletter subscribers. Don’t waste another minute — click here and get more of our CHEAT SHEET stock picks now.

An increase in local taxes appears to be behind the increase; Apple is based in Luxembourg for tax and VAT, or value added tax, purposes. The company subsequently passed on the additional costs to app developers, placing their commission percentage closer to 60 percent in the European Union compared to the 70 percent Apple pays developers elsewhere.

This is not Apple’s first price increase in Europe. In July 2011, Apple increased pricing in the United Kingdom from 59p per app to 69p and the £1.19 tier to £1.49.

This most recent pricing change came shortly after Apple published its third-quarter financials on Thursday.

Don’t Miss: Can Microsoft Trip Up Apple in China?