On online consumer electronics retailer is generating a lot of buzz and swaying people to upgrade to newer software by telling people it will charge Internet Explorer 7 (IE7) a “tax” for using an antiquated browser.

In an announcement on its blog, Kogan said: “Today at Kogan we’ve implemented the world’s first “Internet Explorer 7 Tax”. The new 6.8% tax comes into effect today on all products purchased from Kogan.com by anyone still insistent on using the antique browser.”

However, it assured its patrons that unlike other taxes, users can easily forego paying this IE7 tax by upgrading from the old Microsoft web browser.

The reasoning behind this is simple as explained by Kogan. The company is spending – and in its opinion, wasting – resources to support the antiquated browser.

It says:

“The way we’ve been able to keep our prices so low is by using technology to make our business efficient and streamlined. One of the things stopping that is our web team having to spend a lot of time making our new website look normal on IE7. This is an extremely old browser, so from today, anyone buying from the site who uses IE7 will be lumped with a 6.8% surcharge – that’s 0.1% for each month IE7 has been on the market.”

The IE7 Tax

Microsoft has been pushing its users to upgrade from older versions of Internet Explorer. Last year, it launched a site called IE6Countdown.com to convince people to stop using Internet Explorer 6 and upgrade to newer versions of Internet Explorer.

This means that a $1,000 purchase on Kogan will have a $68 IE7 tax levied on users who complete their order using IE7. However, if they upgrade to more recent browsers like the later versions of Internet Explorer, Firefox, Safari, Chrome or Opera, they will not pay this IE7 tax.

“Customers who enter our site using Internet Explorer 7 can avoid the impost by simply downloading an up-to-date browser such as Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, Safari, Opera or even a more recent version of Internet Explorer,” the online retailer said.

According to Kogan, “It’s not only costing us a huge amount, it’s affecting any business with an online presence, and costing the Internet economy millions.”

“As Internet citizens, we all have a responsibility to make the Internet a better place. By taking these measures, we are doing our bit…This will help us increase our efficiency, help keep prices for all smart shoppers down, and hopefully help eradicate the world of the pain in the rear that is IE7!” it added.

An example checkout page with the IE7 tax indicated.

About Solon Harmony Dolor

A passion for technology and journalism makes this upcoming writer very interested in social media and technology news. Fresh from finishing an English and Journalism degree from the University of the Philippines Diliman, he aims to bring interesting news to our readers .