France says Amazon must charge more for book deliveries

PARIS

Amazon and other e-commerce sites in France will have to charge more for book deliveries, according to a law voted on Dec. 16 aimed at helping traditional bookstores survive tough online competition.

The new rules target retail giants like Amazon, which charges the legal minimum of one euro cent ($0.01) for home book deliveries, leaving French publishers and stores unable to compete.

Laure Darcos, a senator sponsoring the law, accused Amazon of pursuing “a predatory business model” that had to be curbed.

In future, book deliveries “cannot be offered free of charge” the new law says, but must carry a “minimum charge” the level of which will be set by the French government. Culture Minister Roselyne Bachelot said the law will “promote fairness” in the book trade.

Amazon, which had been lobbying against the law, said the new measure would amputate the purchasing power of French consumers by an annual 250 million euros as delivery charges rise.

A spokesman said that 40 percent of Amazon’s book deliveries went to French areas with no bookshops which he said was the case for “90 percent of French municipalities.”

France has 3,300 independent book shops, more than most other European countries, but the bricks-and-mortar outlets suffered during COVID lockdowns that kept customers away.

A fixed price system for books, in force since 1981, protects them from discounting by online competitors.

Banned from cutting book prices directly, internet giants like Amazon instead made home deliveries practically free, a strategy the traditional outlets with already dwindling margins were unable to match.