The French Government has gone stupid...

Amazon.com, one of the largest stores online, offers several features that entice buyers to purchase there, such as "one-click purchasing" and free shipping on many items. While Amazon's multiple attempts to patent "one-click purchasing" has drawn no small amount of ire, the offer of free shipping has been lauded as a beneficial attribute -- until now.

Amazon.com's French website Amazon.fr currently stands in violation of a 1981 French law prohibiting certain discounts on books. The ruling by the French High Court contained two fines -- a one-time lump sum payment of €100,000 to the French Bookseller's Union, and a fine of €1,000 per day until the offending "free shipping" promotion is ended. While the proverbial gavel banged on December 12th, a "grace period" until mid-January gave them time to "correct the problem" and respond.

Amazon indeed responded -- but with defiance rather than compliance.

The 1981 Lang Law in France prohibits several type of discounts on books, including "loss leaders" -- selling a book below cost -- and offering a discount of more than 5% off the list price. With the "free shipping" discount factored in, France officials found Amazon in violating this law; but rather than raise their prices and risk losing customers, Amazon decided to hold fast. The company opted to pay the €1,000 per day fine.

Amazon.com founder and CEO Jeff Bezos wrote an email calling attention to the fact that "France would be the only country in the world where the free delivery practiced by Amazon would be declared illegal" and invites customers to sign an online petition stating their support of free shipping.

While Amazon's fight may seem noble, the current value of the fine is fixed for thirty days only. At that time, it will be "adjusted" ... and likely in an upward direction.

SockPuppet said:
I'm guessing that the point is that Amazon.fr is operating illegally under French law.

Similar Fixed Book Price Laws exist in other countries, namely Austria, Denmark, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Italy, The Netherlands, Portugal, and Spain. At some point there was a similar law in the United Kingdom.

Zarth said:

No, the point is to point and laugh at those horrible, un-American French people, who are cheese-eating surrender-monkeys (ha ha ha! still funny!) who hate Freedom.

In all seriousness, though, it does sound kind of weird. But some better context to the story would have been nice.

d20 said:
if the French Gov't has indeed gone stupid, do they have their stunna shades on? are they going to, perhaps, shake them dreads? do tell.

In all seriousness, though, it does sound kind of weird. But some better context to the story would have been nice.

freshprncebelair said:

Basically, the french protect bookstores by enshrining MSRP into binding law. Amazon breaks this law with its low margins (and it's not dumping because they are still making a profit). So France levies a fine on Amazon.com daily, and Amazon views it as a cost of doing business.

OlafTheTroll said:
All I can say is that it seems a pretty unreasonable interpretation of the law. By offering free shipping, Amazon does not effectively sell books any cheaper than walk-in book shops would.

I mean, unless the French law says anything more specific about mail-order books.

malkav11 said:

Well, not in that specific way - their prices are almost invariably at least 10-20% below retail, sometimes significantly more, and I think only the high cost of shipping keeps retail at all competitive. (I know that if I buy new these days, it's almost entirely through Amazon, and that's pretty much down to their Prime service.)

Zarth said:

Thanks. I was thinking it must be some kind of protectionist rationale for such a law, but the article didn't discuss it at all.

malkav11 said:
Er...our *chain* bookstores are thriving. The independent ones are going out of business in droves, and the ones that aren't are hurting.

Earlier this month the legendary Cody's Books in Berkeley announced that it was closing its doors for good. It's a grim if unsurprising development. The last decade has not been kind to the traditional corner bookshop. Battered by online discounts and chain superstores, the American Booksellers Association has crumbled from 5,200 bookstores in 1991 to 1,702 stores in 2005. So if you were to seek a summary of their dilemma, this one might sound apt: "The old-fashioned bookstore was a charming place, but charm alone will not solve the problem of modern book distribution. . . . Hard though it may be to face the fact, the bookstore of today cannot primarily be a place for those who revere books as things-in-themselves."

malkav11 said:
I really think the smart money for the independent book retailer right now is the used market. I mean, there's only so much room, but it's one that's not being touched by most chains and although it exists online, the costs of shipping make it really tough to offer competitive used prices - online used buying homes in more on the "gotta have something rare and/or out of print" end of things.