Hooray for France!

I think that's a little extreme. Maybe if it was 25% max discount or something?

Wow, that sounds like it really sucks for anyone who needs academic/professional books.

Drachen Jager said:

I wish they'd do something like that here. I miss bookstores.

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I don't. It would just mean I'd buy fewer books in the longrun, and is unlikely to markedly change the number of brick and mortar stores in my area which is currently at zero. (I wouldn't be opposed to getting one. I like browsing through books.)

PS. Also from Salon, despite free shipping from Amazon, indie bookstores have been increasing for the last five years already:
http://www.salon.com/2014/04/04/the..._why_amazons_conquest_will_never_be_complete/

They don't have all the numbers, but it looks to me like BN and Borders did more to hurt indie bookstores than Amazon ever did.

French resident weighing in.

I'm not personally thrilled about this. I only use Amazon to buy books in English, which aren't exactly easy to find in brick-and-mortar bookstores here -- and even when a shop has a few in stock, you're unlikely to find the one you want to buy. So Amazon is a great alternative.

That said, I don't really mind. I'm okay with books being priced at, you know, their full price, and shipping costs make sense to me. I also understand why they're doing this (though I'm not convinced it will make any difference for France's bookstores).

In Germany there are no discounts allowed and still the publishing industry and the booksellers are crying foul all up and down the country.

So I don't think trying to pass laws to help booksellers and stores is gonna help in the longrun. I don't think forbidding shipping costs is gonna level the playing field at all.

If Amazon is eating the shipping costs until now anyway, what would stop them from charging a few cents per book? They'd still eat the majority of the shipping costs and they'd comply with the law.

Shipping costs is not a big deterrent to ordering online.

Just received a mail from Amazon France, informing me that in compliance with the new law, they will now charge one extra cent of euro for shipping of orders that contain books, while still applying the full 5% discount on books.

Should have seen that one coming.

When I order from Amazon.fr I have to pay full shipping every time, so this doesn't change anything for me. However, I expect readers in the US ordering French hardcopy books (because we are blocked from downloading French ebooks...don't even get me started!) is a pretty small portion of their business.

And ordering those books doesn't take business away from my local US bookstore, since they don't carry books in French anyway. I love all the Amazon iterations which enable me to buy foreign language books easily, and I don't mind paying shipping for the privilege. Not so sure how I'd feel about paying shipping for easily available books, though.

France hasn't made a good decision in my lifetime. They still haven't

What about when we abolished death penalty [that's a "you're old" joke].

not then either.

There was already a law forbidding more than 5%off books. That one was to save the small bookshops. But the next day it was voted, all internet sites announced that they'd charge 1cent to send the books... So much for nothing...