Serrano

Storage devices are subject to a special levy, applied by SIAE, which in theory goes to compensate recording artists for their losses caused by the law allowing limited copying of copyrighted material for personal use. Italy isn't the only country to do this, and I don't know how it maps onto the EU view of free trade, but if you buy, for example, a USB pen drive in Italy you pay €0,10 per Gb levy. Similar principles (but diffferent amounts) apply to writeable CDs, DVDs, BluRay, and to hard drives etc.

There is also a levy on every computer, smartphone, MP3 player etc, even if they have no inbuilt storage. And, I believe, on any electronic product that provides the facility of copying material.

You may or may not agree with this policy (I personally disagree very strongly with it), but SIAE are incredibly powerful here. And it may explain why trans-national companies such as Amazon are hesitant about shiping such devices.