Fixed book price with maximum discount
France has the “Lang law”, referring to the former Minister of Culture, Jack
Lang, which states that book publishers and importers have to give their publications a fixed price. Booksellers are then
allowed to give a discount of no more than 5 percent. The law was meant to protect
small retailers against the big chains.
An
alteration has now taken into account the reality of increased online book
sales. French parliament believed that online retailers like Amazon were not following the law by adding free
shipping to the maximum discount. The combination of free shipping and the
maximum 5 % discount is therefore no longer allowed.
Amazon
is abhorred by the change to the law and believes this might be discrimination.
“Every attempt to increase online book prices, only limits French spending
power and discriminates the online
consumer”, Amazon states in a response to the amendment.
