Slashdot Mirror
The Least They Could Do: Amazon Charges 1 Cent To Meet French Free Shipping Ban
Last year, we mentioned that the French government was unhappy with Amazon for offering better prices than the French competition, and strongly limited the amount by which retailers can discount books. Last month, the French parliament also passed a law banning free delivery of books. Ars Technica reports that Amazon has responded with a one-penny shipping rate on the orders that would previously have shipped free. Says the article:
This is by no means the first time France has tried to put a damper on major US tech companies dabbling in books or other reading materials. In 2011, the country updated an old law related to printed books that then allowed publishers to impose set e-book pricing on Apple and others. And in 2012, there was the very public dispute between French lawmakers and Google over the country's desire to see French media outlets paid for having their content pop up in search results. At least for now with this most recent situation, an online giant has found a relatively quick and easy way to regain the upperhand.
Considering how bookshops have been obliterated by Amazon in the US and the UK I don't think the French attitude towards restraining Amazon is bad. It simply puts everyone on the same playing field. And before you Yanks scream of communist plot know that Italy and Germany both have laws that limit the maximum discount on books. Around 15% or so.
This ensure really big companies like Amazon can't destroy local shops only on price.
But then Europe is not the US.
We should also remember that Amazon went years without profit, churning through venture capital like there was no tomorrow. They did this to muscle their way into the market, and to this day I don't know how they didn't get hauled up on anti-trust/anti-competitive charges for delivering loss-leaders.
Got them moderator blues I blieve I walk out the do', With these mod-points I been gettin', I 'most never post no mo'
France is really TWO countries. Firstly there is the greater France and then there is Paris and its environs.
The equivalent would be to separate the greater US and what goes on inside the Beltway. The two are totally divorced from each other (and reality)
Many French People in rural France loathe the Parisiennes. When a car with a Paris Department number plate comes to my Village the locals suddenly become sullen and un-coopoerative towards the visitors. When the car leaves, life returns to normal. Even to a 'Les Rostbiff' like me they are far friendlier that they are to anyone from Paris.
I live most of the year in a village in the Haut-Savoie region, about 50Km from Geneva. We are just starting to see the holidaymakers from Paris arriving. Tomorrow marks the start of the French Summer holiday season as it is Bastille day.
Roll on Sept 1st and they all go home.
Stop being so naive. It's not "the French people" vs a "private company". This whole thing is about wealthy and powerful European publishers trying to rid themselves of competition that's threatening to erode their profits and their power, and local bookstores are a pawn in that issue.
As for the French people, if the majority wanted to shop at local bookstores, the issue would be moot, because local bookstores wouldn't be going out of businesses. Of course, even if the majority had that preference, it still doesn't have the right to impose that on the minority who prefers to shop at Amazon; the ability to engage in business without arbitrary restraints is essential to democracy.
Yeah, and so what?
The underlying assumption behind this kind of move seems to be the belief that small local bookshops are inherently worth protecting. Why is that? It's not like if a bookshop closes the land it occupied is salted with radioactive waste. Something else, possibly something more useful will move in.
The real problem here is not Amazon or books or even Google, it's the French mindset that things should never change, that the old ways are always the best ways. Perhaps France has an unusually elderly set of politicians or voters, but you see this in all its areas, most notoriously agriculture. Old ways of farming were put on a quasi-religious pedestal and vast amounts of EU policy and budget were redirected towards preserving them.
Fetishing bookshops doesn't have any emotional appeal to me - they're just buildings stacked with a small and limited selection of reading materials, which inefficiently deploy land and people. Given the rise of the e-book even large chain bookshops will likely disappear over the coming decades, and who will cry for them?
Perhaps the space the bookshops used up can be replaced by coffee shops - spaces for social interaction and work, where reading an e-book and then meeting a friend and having a nice conversation at ordinary volume is a perfectly acceptable way to spend your time.
Considering how bookshops have been obliterated by Amazon in the US
Borders and Barnes and Noble were obliterated by Amazon. But any book stores that survived Borders/B&N were not affected by Amazon at all. Amazon was late to the "cheap and easy" party, they just did it better than the big chains did, and hurt them most. Any small store that had a near by big store, was better off after Amazon, and the big store closed down again.
Learn to love Alaska
Screw france and any other country that thinks they have a right to control how markets operate.
How about screw companies that want to do business in a local area without following local laws?
Does your same logic apply to columbians who want to sell crack in the US? That is just the good all free market too isn't it?
I dont read
Maybe not. The law says they need to charge shipping costs, so unless their couriers are charging them Ã0.01 they are probably not complying. They are just hoping that it takes the authorities a long time to get around to forcing them to charge the real price, which will be obfuscated as much as possible, by which time the will have forced even more of the competition out of business.
This actually presents an interesting problem. Many carriers contractually require that shippers not disclose the discounts they are being given. That means that if Amazon discloses the discounted shipping rates they are paying, then they loose their discounts, and everyone pays retail. This basically royally screws the shippers, and the consumers. As usual, the French have completely failed to think through the consequences of their actions. It continues a fine decades long tradition of fucking up in the name of protectionism. Its the reason, they have double and triple the rate of unemployment of the rest of the world.
Protectionism only works if your society is close to export parity. If you can afford to close your borders completely without collapsing your economy, then protectionism will work (and you actually don't need it under those circumstances). Whenever there is an imbalance, protectionism screws up the local economy. If there is a trade deficit, then your economy hemorrhages money until everyone is broke and in debt. If there is a trade surplus, then protectionism shuts it down, as no one wants to buy from the over-priced asshat who actively blocks foreign competition. With parity, you can afford to significantly reduce trade in both direction (and you will), but any other time its a bad idea.
I wish I had a good sig, but all the good ones are copyrighted