But this 1$ = 1€ rule has been there for much more time. This can't be the main reason. As another poster wrote, I think the reason is rather "because they can". They may have charged a premium back in the 80s or 90s and just kept it because it worked.
As I wrote, they did have crazy EUR prices before, compared to USD.
When you ask any sales rep. of any big brand in Europe about this, they always use the "24 months warranty vs 12 months elsewhere" excuse.
I'd never buy anything from Apple, so I don't know what excuse they used, being that they illegally dodged the warranty in the past. All I am saying is that they now have both a good excuse as well as a good reason. Anything mechanical is heaps more likely to fail after 24 months than it is after 12.
The 24-months legislation was introduced only recently. IT companies have had these prices for a long time. It's just that multinational sellers will always ask for the maximum price the specific market can bear, regardless of costs.
Italy half-assedly implemented it in late 2002, and then reworked it in 2005 -- so it's about 7 years since it was fully implemented and enforced, which is still "recently" from an industrial point of view. Considering that Apple kept ignoring it until at least December 2011 (!) when they finally lost the trial, I wouldn't be surprised if they were doing the same in other EU countries.
TL;DR: Apple only "felt" this legislation in the last 12 months.
