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In France, any law voted in parliament and promulgated by the president further needs a 'décret d'application' drafted by the Republic's administrative judges that will formulate a number of details on how the law will be enforced. This usually includes the agencies that will be in charge, the budget for enforcement, and any required details to make the law applicable in real life situations, including, for example, a minimum level at which enforcement takes place. As far as I have seen, the so-called anti-Amazon law has not received such a decree, and as such, the law is not being applied for the moment.
By the way, the law, as amended and voted in the senate, is not quite the one mentioned in this thread. The text says that for books that are not picked up in a physical shop, the distributor must apply the price indicated by the publisher (or the importer). However, the distributor can then apply a discount on delivery charges, up to 5% of the book's price. The distributor is not entitled to deliver for free under any circumstances (the original text was calling for 5% discount OR free delivery). This completely destroys Amazon Prime: the book itself cannot be discounted, and delivery cannot be free.
However, I have seen that several websites complain that it will be impossible to write up a proper decree for this law. Not only can delivery charges vary a lot, making it very difficult for smaller online resellers to advertise the actual cost for their books, but in addition, major companies such as Amazon and the FNAC have global contracts with delivery companies, making it near impossible to determine what the cost should be under the law.
Not sure what the future holds, but it would not be the first time a high visibility law voted to assuage the fears of a specific powerful or influential sector ends up never being applied...
French text of the law:
« Lorsque le livre est expédié à l'acheteur et n'est pas retiré dans un commerce de vente au détail de livres, le prix de vente est celui fixé par l'éditeur ou l'importateur. Le détaillant peut pratiquer une décote à hauteur de 5 % de ce prix sur le tarif du service de livraison qu'il établit, sans pouvoir offrir ce service à titre gratuit. »
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