Amazon is countering a law in France banning free shipping, by charging customers a single euro cent for orders. The law, put in place by the French government in an attempt to protect smaller bookstores from being squeezed out of the marketplace by the online retailer, is being circumvented by the technicality, with French lawmakers seemingly unable to hamper Amazon’s sales efforts. The Wall Street Journal reports that Amazon is also prevented from offering a five-percent discount on books by the law, something which the previous version of the same law permitted. Other companies in the country with a physical retail presence are exempt from the restrictions, with both the discount and free delivery able to be offered not only to in-store and phone orders, but also through their online stores.
Amazon.com Inc. ended all book discounts in France on Thursday, and began charging a token penny for shipping books, bowing to a new French law aimed at protecting local bookstores from what they had described as “unfair competition” from the U.S. online retailer. The new law, which went into effect Thursday morning, essentially forbids online booksellers from applying government-regulated discounts to the cover prices of books. They can mark down shipping under the new law—often called the “Anti-Amazon” law—but they cannot offer it free. “We’re sadly no longer authorized to offer you a 5% discount on books,” Amazon said in a note on its French website. A paperback copy of novelist Michel Houellebecq’s recent book “Platforme,” for instance, was on sale Thursday for 8.10 euros ($11.03), plus €0.01 in shipping in France. Previously, it had cost €7.70 with free shipping. The new law is the latest step by European governments—particularly France’s—to rein in what they see as the growing power of a group of largely American tech companies. The French government said last month that it aims to propose new regulations at a European level to ensure a “level playing field” for European companies against U.S. firms. Amazon has been under particular pressure lately. The European Union is looking into its tax arrangements in Luxembourg. In Germany, its unions have been striking over wages. The company is also in the midst of a bitter dispute with Hachette Book Group, part of France’s Lagardère SCA, over e-book pricing, in which its negotiating tactics have included removing preorder buttons on coming Hachette titles.
