France Passes Approval For A Law To Combat Amazon Sales Discount Tactics
engine
4:16 pm on Oct 3, 2013 (gmt 0)
France has approved a bill to support independent bookstores against competition from online retailers.
The new laws will restrict companies like Amazon from combining offers of five percent discounts with free deliveries.
France's 3,000 independent bookshops have complained that they can't compete with the cut-price offers online.
The opposition right-wing party UMP proposed the bill, but it also has the support of the left.
It has been approved by the lower house and will now be sent to the Senate.
The BBC's Paris correspondent Christian Fraser said the bill "might be seen as payback" for Amazon's practices of reporting European sales through a Luxembourg holding company, to take advantage of comparatively low corporate tax rates. France Passes Approval For A Law To Combat Amazon Sales Discount Tactics [bbc.co.uk]
tbear
4:56 pm on Oct 3, 2013 (gmt 0)
I've always understood book sales, UK in particular, to be totally controlled by the industry. Not saying that's bad, or good. Just suspicious........... A bit like the over strong unions controlling labour forces,so that they can get their percentages......
tangor
10:41 pm on Oct 3, 2013 (gmt 0)
Librarians Feel Sticker Shock as Price for Random House Ebooks Rises as Much as 300 Percent
Here's the other side of eBooks, etexts... (this USA)
The pricing of ebooks is all over the place and none of it makes sense.
lucy24
1:00 am on Oct 4, 2013 (gmt 0)
they can't compete with the cut-price offers online
Price isn't everything. Once you've established the illusion of convenience, users will happily pay money for an e-book when they can get the identical file elsewhere for free with no difference in time or trouble. Same principle as brick-and-mortar shoppers assuming the big box has lower prices-- not just overall and on average, but for any given item at any given time.
graeme_p
1:09 pm on Oct 4, 2013 (gmt 0)
If they cannot compete, they should close. If the candle makers could have lobbied as well, we would never have got electric lights.
