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.
