Clair Posted January 12, 2014 Share Posted January 12, 2014 The so-called 'anti-Amazon' law has been adopted.As things stand, books can be discounted by a maximum of 5% and traditional bookshops felt that the offer of free delivery (of books at home) as practised by Amazon and FNAC was unfair competition.The original proposal wanted to allow a 5% discount on the book price and to do away with the free delivery (of books at home.)The amended text wanted to do away with the 5% discount on the book price, but allowed a 5% discount on the delivery costs (of books at home.)As I understand it, the text which has been adopted no longer allows free delivery of books at home, and online retailers will have to apply delivery costs and the 5% discount.To be confirmed... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NormanH Posted January 12, 2014 Share Posted January 12, 2014 Have they worked out a way to make this applicable to orders from Amazon.com or Amazon.uk? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Clair Posted January 12, 2014 Author Share Posted January 12, 2014 As far as I understand, this applies to orders made from Amazon and FNAC (and other online book retailers) in France, not UK or US. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nomoss Posted January 12, 2014 Share Posted January 12, 2014 I sometimes wonder what France's motives were as a founder member of the EU.Maybe they were thinking of an exclusive club where France made the rules.No wonder Bignose didn't want Britain in! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NormanH Posted January 12, 2014 Share Posted January 12, 2014 I thought it was well known that France sees herself as the jockey doing the thinking for the German racehorse..Or driver and carthorse if you prefer. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mint Posted January 12, 2014 Share Posted January 12, 2014 [quote user="NormanH"]Have they worked out a way to make this applicable to orders from Amazon.com or Amazon.uk?[/quote]As the P & P for EACH book from Amazon UK is £4.00, it's not going to work out any cheaper [:(]I have, on occasion, bought CDs from Amazon.com but they were either the only place to get the CDs I wanted or the cheapest. There is also a limit (I think it's 25 euros worth but I can check) to the cost of things from the States before you have to pay VAT on both the goods AND the postage [:-))]So, I don't think that they need to work out anything with UK and US Amazon purchases. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
woolybanana Posted January 12, 2014 Share Posted January 12, 2014 Being foreign companies, I doubt they can apply this piece of nonsense to Amazon UK or com Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Quillan Posted January 13, 2014 Share Posted January 13, 2014 Is not the discount the more important thing? For instance, as it was the first book set to come up, Game of Thrones 6 book set (in English).UK - £29.07 (€35.07)France - €34.20Germany - €25.95Even with Amazon it pays to shop around between countries Although of course the P&P costs have to be added. I use the German website quite a bit as it is often the cheapest especially compared to the UK even with P&P. The German website has a big collection as well, some 650,000 books.I was also wondering if Tesco's deliver books to France? I know they used to send clothing etc because it was discussed some years back on the forum. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Russethouse Posted January 13, 2014 Share Posted January 13, 2014 What effect, if any, will this have on kindle downloads? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lehaut Posted January 13, 2014 Share Posted January 13, 2014 My thoughts exactly, presume you can buy Kindle downloads from wherever in the world so there is no P&P anyway.This will help the decline of book sales as people will turn to e-readers which are becoming more advertised here or on a tablet/phablet. Apart from school books, we have not bought a book book in years.Enjoyed the fact that Reacher books came in US and UK versions, the difference being the spelling I suppose. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Quillan Posted January 13, 2014 Share Posted January 13, 2014 We have converted to ebooks recently (last year) and apart from some 'special' books like first editions we have donated the rest to an English library.One thought that did occure to me that seeing how Tesco (I think it was them) and Amazon broke the publishers price fixing cartel years ago who is going to keep the extra profit if they can only reduce the price by 5% from what I assume is the RRP? Seeing that Amazon 'EU' pays its tax in Luxembourg there is no gain for the French government in all this. I am not so sure this has been thought through properly. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PaulT Posted January 13, 2014 Share Posted January 13, 2014 Cannot see how this will have a big impact. Physical bookshops can only carry the most popular titles, so yes, there is volume. But, you go in to town to buy a book and discover that they have sold out. Or if a little obscure 'we will get it in for you' and so another trip to collect the thing.Ignoring the rights and wrongs of the likes of Amazon and tax they will normally have that obscure book and it turns up a day or two later. No wasted journey in to town so the fuel costs will pay the postage costs (unless you live in town). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
YCCMB Posted January 13, 2014 Share Posted January 13, 2014 One of the reasons it was a lot cheaper to buy things like books from Tesco and Amazon online in the UK was the LVCR loophole, where they all set up distribution from the Channel Islands and hence got Low Value Consignment Relief (effectively, no VAT) on things like CD's DVD's and Books where the consignment value was under £15.This loophole was closed about 3 years ago, and although some have got round it by moving to other countries or selling through third parties, the days of super-cheap stuff were to some extent ended by the closing of this loophole. I'm sure the huge companies have found ways of keeping their prices low. Whether France, in turn, will be able to find ways of preventing them from competing in the French market is another matter.A small battle, I guess, but clearly France thinks it's OK to stifle competition. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chancer Posted January 13, 2014 Share Posted January 13, 2014 I have bought a few things from German sellers on either Ebay.fr or Amazon.fr, most of them sell on both platforms, they were in each case significantly cheaper than UK sellers.I had not thought of looking directly in Germany, how do you overcome the language issue Quillan? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mint Posted January 13, 2014 Share Posted January 13, 2014 [quote user="Chancer"]I had not thought of looking directly in Germany, how do you overcome the language issue Quillan?[/quote]I have bought from German companies too. If I write emails, I write either in French or in English and there's never a problem with replies.If I do need the phone, I suppose I will have to get my German friend to do it for me. But, so far, I have avoided phones, much as I avoided phones for years in France![:-))] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Quillan Posted January 13, 2014 Share Posted January 13, 2014 [quote user="Chancer"]I have bought a few things from German sellers on either Ebay.fr or Amazon.fr, most of them sell on both platforms, they were in each case significantly cheaper than UK sellers.I had not thought of looking directly in Germany, how do you overcome the language issue Quillan?[/quote]I did German at school but even so it was a long time ago so I have 'Google Toolbar' which translates on the fly for words I don't understand. Your login and password works the same on any Amazon website, well it has for me on .co.uk, fr and de. I bought all my Karcher stuff from there and saved a fortune. That said there are things that are more expensive than both the UK and France so you have to check. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lehaut Posted January 13, 2014 Share Posted January 13, 2014 We have bought computer parts from Germany Amazon. Chrome translates ok.Have bought car parts on German Ebay sites, rang them up, apologised I spoke no German and they sorted me out in English. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Clair Posted January 13, 2014 Author Share Posted January 13, 2014 [quote user="Russethouse"]What effect, if any, will this have on kindle downloads?[/quote]None, as this applies to physical books rather than electronic downloads.[quote user="Lehaut"]My thoughts exactly, presume you can buy Kindle downloads from wherever in the world so there is no P&P anyway.This will help the decline of book sales as people will turn to e-readers which are becoming more advertised here or on a tablet/phablet. Apart from school books, we have not bought a book book in years.Enjoyed the fact that Reacher books came in US and UK versions, the difference being the spelling I suppose.[/quote]We had a similar discussion a couple of months ago and my comment was along the same lines.Having said that, with Kindle, your Amazon purchases are technically restricted to the country in which the reader is registered. Of course, there's nothing stopping you from adding reading matter from other sources (I subscribe to a lot of authors' blogs and book listings, and I get lists of legitimate, free-download offers.Unfortunately, the publishing companies do not always make the free Amazon downloads available outside Amazon US/UK territory - something to do with publishing rights, so I use Smashwords as it lists a lot of these books which are free on Amazon US/UK, but not on Amazon FR.) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Clair Posted January 13, 2014 Author Share Posted January 13, 2014 There's a good article HERE, the reading of which could benefit the general attitude of bookshop (and other shops) owners and employees in France...The gist of it is that: “Amazon’s reach is global, so the only thing that likely differentiates my experience from that of booksellers in other places is that I have plenty of Amazon employees as customers. I want Book Larder to provide a great experience, whether the customer is shopping for the perfect cookbook, taking a cooking class, or attending an author talk. Experienced humans are still better at the delivery of all of those things.” Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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