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Last week PC Pro spotted that the download version of CS 3.3 Premium was being sold on the Adobe site for £1,704.89, whilst the boxed version of exactly the same package was offered for just £1,467,58.

When we asked Adobe to explain the £240 discrepancy, the company told us that a mistake had been on the website and that no customers had been overcharged.

However, the company has subsequently admitted that it charges customers more for downloads than boxed versions as a matter of course.

The company claims this is because its download store is based

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in Ireland, where the VAT levied on purchases is charged at 21%. Boxed software is distributed from the UK and is therefore subject to our lesser rate of 17.5%.

This means that customers buying the full version CS 3.3 Premium will still be paying £44 extra to download the software, which doesn't incur any shipping or packaging costs for Adobe.

Adobe has so far failed to explain why it can't offer downloads from the UK rather than Ireland.

A grab from the Adobe website yesterday, which shows the download version of CS3.3 Premium at its inflated price - this has now been corrected

PC Pro last month decided to strip Adobe of a Recommended Awards for Acrobat Pro 9 Extended because of its policy of charging British buyers more than those in the US.