2023-06-28 04:04:54
Baptiste Morin / Photo credits: Moritz Frankenberg / DPA / dpa Picture-Alliance via AFP 6:04 a.m., June 28, 2023
The giant Amazon announced on Tuesday that it would attack before the Council of State a measure intended to increase shipping costs on books. A minimum of 3 euros will be applied to orders under 35 euros from October 2023. The idea is to encourage readers to go to bookstores, but Amazon is making its case.
Amazon France denounces an excess of power. The hexagonal branch of the online commerce platform opposes a ministerial decree issued on April 4. This decree must come into force at the beginning of October and sets the regulatory threshold for shipping costs at 3 euros for orders under 35 euros. According to Amazon, the measure is “contrary to the rights and interests of consumers”.
The group’s first argument: if they are applied, the shipping costs of 3 euros will increase the price of ordering a paperback book by 40%. A fair rebalancing respond the booksellers. “The particularity of Amazon compared to a bookseller is that he can choose to lose money when he delivers at 1 cent, but will be able to compensate for his losses by selling other products” , explains Guillaume Husson, the general delegate of the union of the French bookstore. “Obviously, a bookseller can’t make up for it.”
Amazon, ally of bookstores?
Amazon’s second argument: 90% of French municipalities do not have a bookstore and nearly one in two purchases of books online are motivated by the distance from physical points of sale. The platform would therefore complete the offer in deprived cities. “I, too, deliver to villages that have no bookseller,” replies Matthieu de Montchalin, former president of the French bookstore union and director of the L’Armitière bookstore in Rouen. “But I also know that people in Seine-Maritime have more than 25 top-tier bookstores in their department, so there’s always a town they go to shop in and find a bookstore.”
Amazon France’s appeal is not suspensive. The Council of State’s response should not be taken for several months. Unless otherwise decided by the highest court in the country, the law will come into force from October 7th.
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