Linden Lab's Robin Linden has stated up-front that Linden Lab has no plans to raise basic tier or island costs this quarter. That doesn't mean it can't happen, of course, but it does strongly signal their intention to leave those prices unaltered before 1 January. Maybe things could jump if Linden Lab suddenly needed a cash influx before then, but it doesn't seem likely right now.

Linden Lab does indicate that the pricing of ... well, just about everything is 'under review' - but at this stage of things, that's pretty much a given. Almost everything seems to be under almost constant review.

According to Robin Linden, Linden Lab started paying VAT on payments from EU residents in July this year [The source we drew this from, apparently is incorrect. Linden Lab did not start paying VAT in July], only this week passing on the tax to EU residents. While my own nation (Australia) has a similar tax, the laws don't apply in this respect (though L$ earnings count as capital gains, and when I convert L$ to another currency, that's taxable income).

In fact, one of my commercial services is getting to the point where I'll have to either refuse business to EU residents or charge and pay VAT to the EU - the fact that I'm not an EU business has no bearing.

Here's the question, for EU residents - It's obvious that the EC regulations in this are placing you at a competitive disadvantage. Are you planning to lodge a complaint with the European Commission about this requirement of the VAT-on-E-Commerce directive? Have you done so already?