France wants to prohibit Amazon to offer customers free delivery for books
Aurélie Filipetti French Minister of Culture and Communication criticized on-line shopping site Amazon. She accused Amazon selling products at prices lower than traditional book stores, createing a “quasi-monopoly”.
“Today everyone is tired of Amazon, which reduces prices due to the dumping practices. They use it to enter the market and after reaching the quasi-monopoly situation they raise their prices again,” said Aurélie Filippetti.
The French government plans to introduce a law against the American on-line retailer Amazon. It will prevent discounts and free books delivery for customers in France. The purpose of the measure is to protect other traders from unfair competition, according to the New York Times.
The government wants to find the right time to forbid the Amazon’s practice, which threatens the French sellers business model, said the French Minister of Culture and Communication Aurelie Filippetti.
“I’m against the possibility to offer both free shipping and a discount 5%. We need a law and we need to apply it in the right time” said Aurélie Filippetti for the French TV Channel BFM.
Amazon representatives in France refused to comment on this situation.
This statement of the Ministry of Culture and Communication highlights the tension between the French government and American on-line companies like Amazon and Google. Government criticized their underpaying of the content creators. France like other European countries prohibits retailers to give discounts higher than 5% of the price given by publisher. This policy has an intention to protect booksellers from the big chain stores that otherwise would destroy French bookshops, offering higher discounts.
Aurélie Filippeti said that Amazon is “a destroyer of bookshops.”