Treasure Island UK?: Purge for firms that plunder Britain with high prices

Many global brands treat the UK as a "Treasure Island", charging more for goods here than identical items sold in Europe and elsewhere.

Now the European Commission has signalled a crackdown on such price fixing.

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It is to publish details showing how much a series of items cost across the EU, thereby identifying those companies making suspicious price mark-ups.

One senior Commission official warned: "Where there is no obvious explanation for why the price of a standard item, say, a camera, is vastly different across borders, we will want to know why.

"We are screening the markets, taking into account levels of complaints about prices, pricing patterns across Europe and customer satisfaction. We are looking for the kind of retail patterns which raise questions."

Officials say significant differences on goods have raised questions about price-fixing cartels and market rigging.

Firms guilty of rigging prices or the market can receive fines equal to 10 per cent of their turnover.

The promises of action may ring a little hollow in British homes, however, because the EU and the

Government have been promising to stamp down on such rip-offs for at least ten years.

The creation of the European Single Market, where goods and services can be freely traded across borders, was supposed to put an end to price rigging.

The theory was that prices in Britain would be brought down to match the lower figures charged for many consumer goods on the Continent.

However, a succession of surveys demonstrate this is not the case.

And there is ample evidence, particularly with electronic goods, that British shoppers pay over the odds.

The greatest price differences can be found when comparing UK prices with the U.S. and the Far East. However, there are also some mark-ups compared to other EU states.

Sony's British launch price for the 60GB version of the PlayStation 3 console last year was £425, some 27 per cent more than in the U.S. and 68 per cent more than Japan.

The price was also higher than the £399 charged in France and Germany and the £397 in Australia. The prices across all these nations have since come down.

Research by shopping website PriceRunner.co.uk found the cost of a Canon Digital IXUS 850 IS camera came in at an average of £253.28 in this country. That compared to £230 in France and just £146.30 in the U.S.

A Microsoft Xbox 360 Premium games console was £269.66 in this country, £250.53 in France, £178.63 in New York and £161.73 in Japan. However, matters are not always so clear cut. There are a number of products where UK consumers do better than other nations.

The European Commission has promised to take a tougher line on high mark-ups and price distortions across the Single Market.

One official said: "Just exposing the real price of certain goods in different parts of the EU can have the desired effect if undue markups are being placed on items."