I've read the press release too. But is this a good development voor Dutch and Belgian (Flemish) readers? In the end?
Selling Kobo readers through Bol.com is not a bad idea, and Kobo could sell a lot more ereaders. Not a bad move for both parties.
The integration of a closed ecosystem (Kobo) or Bol.com ('open') isn't a big hurdle. All they have to do is to add some sort of "API Key" to the user settings at both Bol.com and Kobo and epubs will become available as kepubs in your Kobo (online) library. There is no need for conversion. Kepubs are certainly not going to disappear.
The Kobo ereaders and accesoires are and were available at many online and brick-and-mortar shops in the Netherlands and Belgium. This changes nothing for the customer (the only exception here is that you can buy these items now at bol.com at the SRP; better wait untill items become available as other vendors often offer better prices for both ereaders and accessoires.).
The number of available book titles will not increase. Some Dutch books that were available at all Dutch book sellers (all use the services of Centraal Boekhuis) with the exception of Kobo will become available at Kobo too. And vice versa for non Dutch language books which will become available at bol.com. The only advantage for the customer is that books can bought now at one shop (Kobo or Bol.com).
The cooperation between two major booksellers Bol.com (the largest bookseller in the Netherlands) and Kobo (gaining market share rapidly) will lead to decreased market competition, lower (average) discounts on e-books, and a decrease in the number of books that are discountable.
Bol.com (and all other booksellers, including Kobo) charge the (Publisher)SRP for ebooks. Only a small number of ebooks at Bol.com are discounted. These are usually only older books (at least older than one year after first publication) and the avarage discount is around 30-20%.
Occasionally Bol.com (and other booksellers) offer a 2 for 1 (50%) discount but the books to choose from is strictly limited to a very short list (of old books).
Some background information (for non Dutch citizens). The origin goes back to the
"Wet op de vaste boekenprijs" (Section of law about fixed book prices) and states:
- the initial price is set by the publisher (article 2)
- after 6 months the publisher can adjust the previous fixed sales price to a new level (article 5)
- the publisher can [choose to] waive the fixed sales price for an individual book title edition after one year of first publication (article 7)
For the non Dutch readers: "Wet op de vaste boekenprijs" (Section of law about fixed book prices) has some similarities with the American Agency model regarding the suggested retail price of books.
The major difference here is that American booksellers can decide to discount books (Amazon vs Hachette, remember?) but Dutch book sellers can not (they are prohibited by law to do so.).
Here's the catch: "Wet op de vaste boekenprijs" (Section of law about fixed book prices) is not applicable to ebooks only to paper books. That is correct, but the retail price of ebooks is never set lower than the SRP.
De facto this law is also applied to ebooks.
In other words: you will never see books with a SRP of €14.99 be available at, lets say €13.99, or SRP €9.99 at €8.99, but theoretically ebooks are (still) discountable.
There is not much price competition (heavily regulated by law) and oligopoly book sellers market in which Bol.com (the biggest online book retailer in The Netherlands) and Kobo (no info on market share; but very likely not the smallest anymore) are not the weakest.