"Amazon Ordered to End Free Delivery on Books in France"

[Ty]

There's a bookseller's union?? WTH? Is EVERYTHING a union over there or what?

 

[Davros]

pretty much and the french goverment do love to give in to them

 

[vazel]

Haha bravo Amazon.com! I really love this company even more now.

 

[L233]

pretty much and the french goverment do love to give in to them

The government has nothing to do with it. It's a law from 1981 and the court ruled according to that law. There a similar laws in other European countries, Germany and Austria among them.

The basic idea is that it allows publishers to cross-subsidize literature that doesn't sell well by keeping the margins up on books that do sell a lot. This is thought to increase the diversity of books. Books are, after all, and important cultural good and economic considerations aren't neccessarily the most important ones.

This isn't an issue in the English-language world. There market there is big enough so that even fringe stuff can move enough units to be viable. In smaller language markets, a lot of literature would just disappear. It's seems plausible.

Luckily, this won't happen here, though, because free shipping isn't a problem as it stands now... but rebate coupons are.