AfterDawn: Tech news

France seeks ban on Amazon "book discounts, free delivery bundle"

Written by James Delahunty @ 22 Jun 2013 3:32

France seeks ban on Amazon "book discounts, free delivery bundle" The French government is planning to introduce new restrictions that would stop Amazon from being able to offer discounts on books, while also offering free delivery.
French law already forbids discounts of more than 5 percent on books, to prevent smaller sellers from being crushed by huge retail chains. While Amazon doesn't offer more than a 5 percent discount on books - complying with the existing laws - it does offer free delivery services.

"I'm in favor of ending the possibility of offering both free delivery and a five percent discount," Frence culture minister, Aurelie Filippetti, told BFM news television on Friday.

"We need a law, so we're going to find a legislative window to introduce one."

Amazon can afford to take the losses that providing both discounts, and free delivery, can impose, whereas other booksellers cannot. The SLF book retailers' union backs the socialist government's plans, and has already sued Amazon in court.



"Today, the competition is unfair... No other book retailer, whether a small or large book or even a chain, can allow itself to lose that much money," Guillaume Husson, head of the SLF union, said.

Tags: Amazon France
Previous Next  
Comments have been disabled for this article.

Latest news

Roomba Combo j7+ review - Clever trick allows robot vacuum finally to tackle home with rugs and carpets Roomba Combo j7+ review - Clever trick allows robot vacuum finally to tackle home with rugs and carpets (06 Jun 2023 9:19)
Roomba Combo j7+ is the very first Roomba model to combine robot vacuum with mopping features. And Roomba Combo j7+ does all that with a very clever trick, which tackles the problem with mopping and carpets. But is it any good? We found out.
Neato, the robot vacuum company, ends its operations Neato, the robot vacuum company, ends its operations (02 May 2023 3:38)
Neato Robotics has ceased its operations. American robot vacuum pioneer founded in 2005 has finally called it quits and company will cease its operations and sales. Only a skeleton crew will remain who will keep the servers running until 2028.
5 user comments
How to Send Messages to Yourself on WhatsApp How to Send Messages to Yourself on WhatsApp (20 Mar 2023 1:25)
The world's most popular messaging platform, Meta-owned WhatsApp has enabled sending messages to yourself. While at first, this might seem like an odd feature, it can be very useful in a lot of situations. ....
18 user comments
How to Enable Bluetooth on Stadia Controller How to Enable Bluetooth on Stadia Controller (11 Feb 2023 1:04)
Google shut down its streaming game service Stadia late last month and this means that some people have Stadia controllers lying around that seem to be of no use. That is fortunately not the ....
2 user comments
Guide: How to Kick Unwanted Guests from Your Netflix Account Guide: How to Kick Unwanted Guests from Your Netflix Account (26 Jan 2023 2:14)
Sharing a Netflix account with a person in a different location is possible and indeed very common, although the company doesn't necessarily enjoy this behavior from their customers. However, ....

News archive