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Wow, this really ended up as a political conversation and went way out of topic ^^
To the initial problem of preventing Amazon from shipping books without costs, well, it depends on how you consider those "savings": hidden discount on the price of book or a reduction of the profit margin of the company on the sale. Both option are valid and Amazon isn't the only company that would be impacted. It's just another (misguided?) attempt at protecting small, independent bookstores that can't afford to offer free shipping (how many books they actually ship is another question).
The question of VAT on ebooks in France and Luxembourg is another matter entirely. The problem comes from the definition of an ebook. France considers ebook to be books just as pbooks (unless I'm mistaken). As such, they should be taxed the same as pbooks. Europe considers that books are an entirely different product and isn't a "good" nor a "service". As such, it should be fully taxed.
I think the full VAT is the same in all European countries, it's only locally sold goods and services that can benefit from a reduced VAT. As ebooks could be sold across borders, ebooks retailers press for a (higher) harmonized VAT or we would all start to buy our ebooks in Luxembourg ^^. A solution would be for retailers to not include VAT in the sale and have individuals pay it themselves... Not sure if that would work well.
Whether having a different VAT on pbooks and ebooks makes sense should probably be left for another topic.
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