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Amazon.fr told to end free delivery

13.12.07 Barbara Casassus

The French Booksellers Association, Syndicat de la Librairie Française (SLF), has won a third court case in its fight against free book deliveries and gift vouchers offered by online retailers.

The Versailles court near Paris instructed Amazon.fr to pay the association €100,000 in damages and €1,000 for each day it continues to violate the 1981 Lang law that capped discounts on book prices at 5%. The law was named after the then culture minister Jack Lang.  

Amazon will have to start paying the daily fine ten days after it receives the official notification of the decision, and has a month to lodge an appeal.

According to French newspaper Le Monde, Amazon France m.d. Xavier Garambois said he was disappointed by the ruling and was likely to appeal once his lawyers had examined the decision. Amazon.fr is continuing to offer free deliveries. Garambois said that "the company would not change its sales policy from one day to the next".

Last June, the Paris appeal court ruled against France Télécom subsidiary Alapage.com for offering free book deliveries and gift vouchers, and awarded the SLF 50,000 euros in damages. Alapage, which has taken the case to the Supreme Court, as well as rival etailers FNAC.com and Chapitre.com were still flagging free book deliveries within mainland France on Dec. 12.

But the SLF will not sue FNAC and Chapitre, because they have promised to stop the practice as soon as Amazon and Alapage do so, according to SLF president Benoît Bougerol. FNAC and Chapitre started offering free deliveries much later than the other two, and only to keep up with their competitors, Bougerol told The Bookseller. He hopes the Supreme Court will hand down its Alapage ruling next year.
 
The SLF said the purpose of the litigation was to ensure that "internet sites respect the letter and the spirit of the (1981) law".

"Online operators sell at a loss in order to capture market share and « destabilise a market that is already fragile,"  the association added. "It is a dangerous and predatory attitude (and violates) the law’s goal of maintaining diversity and cultural creation."

Separately, the SLF announced that Guillaume Husson, head of the French Culture Ministry’s book and reading division, would take over from Olivier L’Hostis as SLF general secretary next February.

Barbara Casassus SLF France Amazon.fr French Booksellers Association Syndicat de la Librairie Française

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