Why does it cost more to renew NIS than buy a new one

My NIS (v21.6.0.32) subscription is due for renewal at the end of the month and the system took me to this screen:

snip - Norton prices 8th November 2014.PNGI know that I'm a numpty (technical term) when it comes to the inner workings of PC program but common sense tells me it should cost no more for Norton to renew than start a new subscription. Some banks in the UK have moved away from these "dearer for existing than for new customers" for obvious reasons.

I can't think of any downsides to buying a new subscription - are there any?

I probably would have just renewed had it not been for the silly pricing policy but instead I've just looked at Amazon. I can download a new NIS v 21 for £20.49.

No comparison is there - I'll wait a few days in case some kind person tells me of downsides to 'buy new instead of renewing'. Sorry Norton - your pricing policy needs to be reviewed imho.