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1st December 2008

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France rallies to fixed defences

27.05.08 Barbara Casassus

The French single book price could be under threat from last minute pressure to amend an economic reform bill that is now on its way through the country's parliament. Two centre-right parliamentarians each lodged an amendment to the bill aimed at reducing the length of time before discounts are allowed from two years to six months.

Both amendments have been rejected, but there are fears that the proposals could be re-presented to the parliament as the bill progresses. A joint statement from the French publishers, booksellers and authors associations said that culture minister Christine Albanel had endorsed their warning to members of parliament of "the extreme dangers" of voting in favour of the clauses.

"This is important, but nothing prevents senators from presenting the same proposals during their debate on the bill," according to Christine de Mazières, director of the Syndicat National de l'Edition (SNE).

The proposals were the result of lobbying by Amazon to reduce waste from the number of books pulped in France each year, according to Syndicat de la Librairie Française (SLF) president Benoît Bougerol. Right-wing parliamentarian Christian Kert claimed that 100 million books were destroyed annually, a figure described by Bougerol as absurd. "No-one knows where this statistic comes from, and anyway pulped books are recycled."

If the measure were adopted, "it would signal the end of the single book price and would trigger a total upheaval of the book market," said a statement from the Société des Gens de Lettres (SGDL), the SNE and the Syndicat de la Librairie Française (SLF). "Attempts to destabilise the book market would be ruinous and irreversible," it added.

Deregulation would penalise consumers and readers, the statement said. Like in the UK, it would reduce the number of titles published, depress sales by raising average retail book prices, force publishers to offset lost revenue by increasing their prices, and limit public access to books by driving city-centre booksellers to the wall. "With fewer, more expensive and less accessible books, the consumer has everything to lose."

The 1981 Lang law, which was voted on to the statute books unanimously, has been anti-inflationist, the associations said. Figures from the national statistics office INSEE show that the book price index has risen half as fast as the overall index over the past ten years, it added. The debate comes at a time when President Nicolas Sarkozy and the government are under fire for failing to halt the erosion in consumer buying power.

"The change would be a catastrophe for authors, because they do not receive any royalties on discounted books," SGDL president Alain Absire told the Bookseller. Absire does not believe the 1981 Lang law, named after former socialist culture minister Jack Lang, will be scrapped this time around. But he predicts that the pressure against it will continue. "We must remain extremely vigilant," he said.

The National Assembly, or lower house of parliament, was to vote on the bill for a first time this week. It will then go to the Senate, or upper house, before returning to the Assembly for a final vote before the summer recess.

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