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French Culture Minister Aurélie Filippetti has again lashed out at Amazon and called its dispute with Hachette an "unacceptable attack on access to books."
Filippetti has also pledged her support the two-page Authors United declaration signed by 900 authors in the New York Times last Sunday, which calls on Amazon to end its dispute with Hachette Book Group (HBG).
"This episode is a new revelation of Amazon’s… anti-competitive practices," she told the French newspaper Le Monde this week. "It is abuse of dominance and an unacceptable attack on access to books.
(The group) is attacking literary and editorial diversity."
Not all the authors signing the declaration are published by HBC, she added.
"They are simply conscious of the general interest. For my part, I defend the entire book eco-system, not any one player in particular."
In May, Filippetti accused Amazon of blackmailing publishers to obtain tougher commercial terms, and called for the European Commission to take action to prevent the company from abusing its market dominance.