{"id":1371,"date":"2014-06-27T05:12:26","date_gmt":"2014-06-27T12:12:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/?p=1371"},"modified":"2014-06-27T10:13:27","modified_gmt":"2014-06-27T17:13:27","slug":"fixed-book-prices","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/2014\/06\/fixed-book-prices\/","title":{"rendered":"Fixed book prices (updated)"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"paid<\/a>France has passed anti-Amazon legislation. Publishing Perspectives<\/em> reports<\/a>:<\/p>\n

\n

On Wednesday, the French parliament passed a long-debated law that will end Amazon.com\u2019s ability to offer a combined 5% discount and free shipping on books shipped to France, according to\u00a0Livres Hebdo.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

France\u2019s fixed book price law, dubbed \u201cThe Lang Law,\u201d was passed in 1981 and allows for a maximum 5% discount under varied positions.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe \u2018Anti-Amazon Law,\u2019 was created to prevent ecommerce sites like [the American giant] Amazon from stamping out the iconic network of independent French bookshops that currently struggle to compete,\u201d wrote\u00a0Livres Hebdo<\/em>.<\/p>\n

French Minister of Culture Aur\u00e9lie Filippetti commented: \u201cAs we have just seen again, laws pertaining to the book economy always generate consensus, if not unanimity. This is a sign of our deep attachment to books in this nation, and it demonstrates the belief that France builds itself through its past and its future.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Whatever your feelings about Amazon, let’s look at the law as one that has always worked to prevent any<\/em> large retailer from offering significant discounts on books – such laws are found throughout Europe, and existed pre-Amazon.<\/p>\n

There might be a ‘deep attachment to books in France’, but how is that demonstrated by a policy that makes books more expensive, and time-consuming to purchase? This is not, and never has been, legislation to encourage more reading. It is legislation to protect small bookshops from competition, with each other and with other retailers – that’s all<\/em> it does. If legislation were passed that prevented retailers from offering discounts on bread, it would help out small bakeries, selling at high prices, but I wouldn’t expect it to lead, in aggregate, to higher bread consumption.<\/p>\n

Does such a policy lead to more diversity in books? That has been claimed, but I don’t understand the reasoning. Small bookshops are commercial, not nonprofit, enterprises, and they will keep an inventory that generates profit. If price competition from Amazon and big discount stores is held in check by legislation, that doesn’t incentivize small bookshops to hold commercially non-viable stock – why would they?<\/p>\n

In any arts policy, analysts need to ask ‘what is the goal of the policy?’ and, in turn ‘will this policy be the most effective means of achieving this goal?’ If the goal is to encourage reading, would noncompetition policy really be the best means of achieving it?<\/p>\n

UPDATE: Quebec has decided to go the opposite way. Publishers Weekly<\/em> reports<\/a>:<\/p>\n

\n

Only five months after the Qu\u00e9bec government announced it would go ahead with its\u00a0innovative fixed pricing legislation<\/a>\u00a0on new books, the project is dead.<\/p>\n

\n
\n
<\/div>\n
Following a spring election, the new Couillard liberal government axed the project last week. The announcement was made discreetly on a Friday, after the majority of Quebecers had left work to go on summer break.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

H\u00e9l\u00e8ne David, Qu\u00e9bec’s new Minister of Culture and Communications, said: “Rather than opting for a partial solution, such as price fixing for new titles…[we] will recommend targeted actions to obtain practical and measurable results.” The government gave no further indications as to what those actions might be. …<\/p>\n

The Fixed Pricing Law on Books was to be evaluated after a three-year trial period, at which point it would have either been officially accepted or rejected. But the historical defeat of the Parti Qu\u00e9b\u00e9cois in the April 7 elections ended the short-lived dream.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

France has passed anti-Amazon legislation. Publishing Perspectives reports: On Wednesday, the French parliament passed a long-debated law that will end Amazon.com\u2019s ability to offer a combined 5% discount and free shipping on books shipped to France, according to\u00a0Livres Hebdo.\u00a0 France\u2019s fixed book price law, dubbed \u201cThe Lang Law,\u201d was passed in 1981 and allows for […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":1374,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[26],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-1371","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-issues","8":"entry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/06\/french-reader.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3dIW5-m7","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":1557,"url":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/2014\/10\/is-amazon-com-a-monopoly\/","url_meta":{"origin":1371,"position":0},"title":"Is Amazon.com a monopoly? (updated October 10)","author":"Michael Rushton","date":"October 1, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"In a comment on my previous post, on Amazon and what I saw as overheated rhetoric regarding censorship, BobG wrote: Arguing over a definition of censorship is avoiding the actual issue. Amazon IS making it difficult to get certain books (that\u2019s their announced strategy) and they are poised to become\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "issues"","block_context":{"text":"issues","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/category\/issues\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"still don't need it","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/jail-card-monopoly.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/jail-card-monopoly.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/jail-card-monopoly.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/jail-card-monopoly.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":1818,"url":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/2015\/02\/minimum-wages-in-the-cultural-sector-the-case-of-borderlands-books\/","url_meta":{"origin":1371,"position":1},"title":"Minimum wages in the cultural sector: the case of Borderlands Books","author":"Michael Rushton","date":"February 3, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"Borderlands Books, of San Francisco, will be closing its doors. Brick-and-mortar bookstores face a tough market situation, and those that are paying San Francisco-level rents even more so. But according to the owners, the straw that broke this camel's back was the mandated increase in the minimum wage. From Borderlands\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "issues"","block_context":{"text":"issues","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/category\/issues\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"here's how my wage is set to go up","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/02\/bookshop.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/02\/bookshop.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/02\/bookshop.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/02\/bookshop.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":1617,"url":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/2014\/10\/amazon-and-monopoly-encore\/","url_meta":{"origin":1371,"position":2},"title":"Amazon and monopoly: encore (updated)","author":"Michael Rushton","date":"October 14, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"The debate that won't die. I've posted on whether Amazon is a monopoly (it isn't) here and here. Today Joe Nocera joins Matt Yglesias and Annie Lowrey in his critique of Franklin Foer's New Republic article that tries to claim dangerous monopoly powers at Amazon. Artsjournal.com blog neighbor Scott Timberg\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "issues"","block_context":{"text":"issues","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/category\/issues\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"still don't need it","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/jail-card-monopoly.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/jail-card-monopoly.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/jail-card-monopoly.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/jail-card-monopoly.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":1390,"url":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/2014\/06\/droit-de-suite-revisited\/","url_meta":{"origin":1371,"position":3},"title":"Droit de Suite revisited","author":"Michael Rushton","date":"June 30, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"Today at Slate, Whitney Kimball tries to make the case for US adoption of resale royalties for visual artists, or droit de suite: In what would become the first scandalously record-breaking Sotheby\u2019s art auction in 1973, taxi magnate Robert Scull and his wife famously made a fortune on 50 artworks\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "issues"","block_context":{"text":"issues","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/category\/issues\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"We're back ...","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/06\/auction.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/06\/auction.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/06\/auction.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":1314,"url":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/2014\/05\/l3cs-in-the-arts\/","url_meta":{"origin":1371,"position":4},"title":"L3C’s in the arts (updated with citation info)","author":"Michael Rushton","date":"May 26, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"I have a new working paper up on L3C's in the arts, which you can download for free here. If you were there, it's the paper I presented at Social Theory, Politics and the Arts in Seattle last October, cleaned up and revised. The abstract: Traditionally, the choice of organizational\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "issues"","block_context":{"text":"issues","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/category\/issues\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"no future?","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/05\/mule.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1418,"url":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/2014\/07\/summer-books-brad-stones-the-everything-store\/","url_meta":{"origin":1371,"position":5},"title":"Summer books: Brad Stone’s ‘The Everything Store’","author":"Michael Rushton","date":"July 17, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"In the past few months there are few businesses that have come in for such vilification as Amazon.com - including in many of the stories and blogs here at artsjournal.com - and so Brad Stone's book, subtitled 'Jeff Bezos and the Age of Amazon', is timely, to say the least.\u2026","rel":"","context":"With 3 comments","block_context":{"text":"With 3 comments","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/2014\/07\/summer-books-brad-stones-the-everything-store\/#comments"},"img":{"alt_text":"a difficult case","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/07\/everything-store-193x300.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1371","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1371"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1371\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1374"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1371"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1371"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1371"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}