If the pricing you listed for Europe is accurate
Examples:
Mindfactory DE: sells the
tray 10940X (in stock) for €671.18=
$778.47 pre-VAT. It is sold €798,71=$926.44 including VAT.
Mindfactory DE: sells the
boxed 10940X (in stock) for €694.77=
$805.89 pre-VAT. It is sold €826.78=$958.94 including VAT.
Ebuyer: sells the
boxed 10940X (in stock) for £639.22=
$813.81 pre-VAT. It is sold £767.06=$976.45 including VAT.
Mindfactory DE: sells the
tray 10980XE (in stock) for €915.13=
$1,062.25 pre-VAT. It is sold €1,089.00=$1,264.07 including VAT.
Novatech: sells the
tray 10980XE (in stock) for £884.56 =
$1,126.08 pre-VAT. It is sold £1061.47 (=$1,348.06) including VAT.
Caseking DE: sells the
boxed 10980XE (in stock) for €1,096.58=
$1,271.53 pre-VAT. It is sold €1,266.25=$1468.37 including VAT.
I can only assume that because Europe is far more pro-AMD than here, whatever little stock they got still couldn't get sold, and the prices reflect that.
I doubt that people in Europe are being more pro-AMD than people in the US. In fact, in Europe you won’t observe the anti-Intel sentiment you observe in the US. And if retail pricing is your metric, then I should note that pre-VAT prices for Ryzen and Threadripper parts are below (or well below) MSRP when converted to USD.
The reasons you see this kind of pre-VAT pricing in Europe compared to the US are probably the following:
(i) In the US sales tax is only 0-7.25% with most states having it around 4-5%. On the other hand, in Europe, VAT (sales tax equivalent) is on average 20% (it generally ranges between 19%-23% with most countries setting it at either 19% or 20%). Adding VAT increases retail price considerably so retailers cannot overprice the products too much as they would get less affordable and fewer people would buy them. Also, by law, retailers should by default list the price with VAT, unlike in North America where the list price is always without sales tax and you only get the final price once you are about to pay.
(ii) Intel has plenty of direct retail channels in Europe, especially in Germany and the UK. These are major retailers who are both system integrators as well as retailers of parts for the DIY market. Aside from Silicon Lottery, you won’t typically see OEM tray parts being sold directly to consumers in the US. But in Europe it is actually very common. You do have plenty of 10980XE tray parts in stock for sale in Europe. In the US, the system integrators, typically don't sell any of the cpus they get. They instead only offer them as parts of entire PC builds.
(iii)In Europe, many of these direct Intel clients offer “pre-ordering” to consumers for parts that are not in stock (typically at a price slightly higher than MSRP). These are then ordered directly from Intel just for you (the parts are shipped from Intel alongside the next batch of orders the retailer has placed to Intel). For example, if you want to buy a boxed 10980XE and it is not in stock you can place an order as a “pre-order” and it will be shipped to you within 3-4 weeks (if you want to buy a tray part it will probably be in stock anyway and you will get it immediately).
(iv) Amazon, although big, is not the only game in town when it comes to PC parts in Europe. In fact, unlike in the US, Amazon usually doesn’t get good stock at launch and for some very-high end parts they rarely get good stock. But you will find stock in all other major direct retailers who, being smaller in size and plenty in number, they keep each other in check or at least slow down the creeping-up of prices. That is what competition is about. Then, usually 2-3 months post-launch, when Amazon finally gets good stock allocation, it is sort of forced to follow suit. This always happens for mainstream parts (not so much for prosumer/HEDT parts). Anyway for the parts where Amazon has relatively good stock there is a price-matching algorithm to match (or better) the pricing of the best price offered from any of these other major retailers. And since the price of these retailers -even when they don’t have stock (remember pre-ordering) - is usually kept at MSRP, you won’t see Amazon itself listing prices higher (or at least not much higher) than MSRP either.
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