French Fine Amazon For Free Shipping

strech writes "Ars Technica reports that France is fining Amazon for offering free shipping on some orders. A French high court ruled in December that the practice violated a law preventing discounting the price of a book more than 5% off of the publisher's recommended price. Amazon has decided to pay the fine, rather than drop free shipping. The fine currently stands at €1,000 per day but is automatically reconsidered after 30 days, after which it could be raised dramatically."

Comments

Re:What possible reason

[clickety6]

A lot of countries have or had the law - like the Net Book Agreement in the UK. It helped keep the average cost of book lower and ensured that a wider range and variety of books got published. It was abolished in the UK some years back, since when a lot of smaller book shops disappeared and it has gotten harder and harder to find shops with a wide range of books rather than those just pushing the most recent best sellers at discounted prices.

Germany has a similar system in place but is also facing problems because the Swiss have decided to allow discounted German books.

So the law gave readers a wider range of books and, on the whole, helped keep prices lower.

Re:Discounting the price of a book?

[teslar]

Got any source for that? Cause as far as I can tell, you just made that up and it's bullshit (and not +5 Insightful, mods - way to check a claim before modding).
The real beef (link in French, sorry) the Syndicat de la librairie française has with Amazon (and other online sellers) is twofold. By not charging delivery costs (In France and I think Germany, there is no minimum order for free delivery costs if you only buy books), they are

1. selling at a loss (vente à perte)
   
2. associating a free service with the sale (vente à prime)
   

Both of which are forbidden under French law (loi Lang). Amazon simply argues, that delivery merely an extension of the sale contract, aimed at actually bringing the goods to the customer, but apparently, the courts do not agree.

Re:Actually, the real beef...

[genji256]

And French law, instead of giving the consumer the right to buy where they can get something the cheapest, instead forces the consumer to pay more for a product than they need to. This law allowed small bookstores to stay alive. You might see this as an attack on free market (which it is), but it is also allowing French people to buy books they would have a hard time to find otherwise. In the US, on the other hand, the big stores are healthy, but finding something which is not mainstream is rather hard, especially outside the big cities. Now, should this be done for every product? I don't think so. The consumer who wants something eclectic doesn't have a right to get it (even more at a reasonable price), like fresh fruits at a market (French don't have laws to maintain the markets and they mostly buy their food at large shopping centers). However, Lang decided that the culture had to be treated differently, which I agree with, even though it goes against the conception of free market (as others have stated, free market doesn't solve everything).

Re:Discounting the price of a book?

[mdozturk]

As a publisher I can tell you the breakdown is roughly something like the 25% for printing, 25% for the author/publisher, 50% for the distributor. When amazon gives a discount it is from its own share (the 50%).

Dumping means selling less than the cost to print (>75% off the cover price). In the US the laws are designed for the benefit of the consumer. Lowering prices are encouraged.