France approves law stopping Amazon from shipping discounted books for free

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by afv011

Funny that there is no word for "cheap/inexpensive" in French, and you have to revert to "not expensive". I guess it says it all.

What do you mean when you say "it says it all"?

[Istvan diVega]

I wondered about that as well.

[Mike L]

Originally Posted by HarryT

What is "music pas cher"?

Originally Posted by joehunt

Google translates "pas cher" to "inexpensive".

Sorry to be pernickity, but shouldn't it be "pas chère", given that music is feminine in French?

Mike

[fjtorres]

Originally Posted by calvin-c

Ditto, somewhat. I'd hate to see the market dwindle to just a few sellers. Big or little, that's not good for consumers. (OTOH I don't see any definite need for brick-and-mortar stores for most items. One exception might be clothing. I, at least, prefer to try my clothes on before I buy them. I don't even think I'd make an exception for food provided quality standards were sufficient-and enforced.)

There are plenty of ways to compete other than pricing.
(Notice how much stronger Amazon is now than they were the day the price fix scam went into effect.)

Smart competitors find them, lazy/stupid ones "lobby" (pay) politicians to rip off consumers so they won't have to.
If the gullible consumers put up with it is fine with me as long as they don't expect me to swallow their story and follow suit.

[ApK]

Originally Posted by HarryT

There is a fairly large difference between a government doing something for the overall good of society, and a cartel of publishers doing the same thing for financial gain.

I disagree, at least in this case.

The "good of society" in this case appears to be "financial gain" for smaller businesses.

One side is a government saying that controlling prices in this way is harmful to society, and if any one does it, we'll bust them, and the other side is a government saying it's good for society, and we'll do it for them.

[Apache]

Originally Posted by HarryT

The book market is not a "free market" in many countries - it has legally-enforced price fixing. France, like many other countries, has made the decision that fixed pricing for books benefits society overall by supporting small independent booksellers.

So France would have forced Henry Ford to fix his prices to keep Buggy Manufacturers in business?
Apache

[Istvan diVega]

I think the French government probably has a better basis for deciding what should be French law than most people on this forum. And while unbridled capitalism and commercialism is tantamount to a law of nature in the US, that isn't actually the case in most of the remainder of the world.

[ApK]

Originally Posted by Istvan diVega

I think the French government probably has a better basis for deciding what should be French law than most people on this forum. And while unbridled capitalism and commercialism is tantamount to a law of nature in the US, that isn't actually the case in most of the remainder of the world.

1, It's not unbridled. It's decidedly bridled, as the Apple case illustrates.
2, I think the French US government probably has a better basis for deciding what should be French law US economic policy than most people on this forum.

Anyway, I was not commenting on which approach was better.*
I was commenting that the two matters both being in the news here fairly recently was a notable illustration of the differences.

ApK

*Though I personally think our way in the US is better.

[Marseille]

Originally Posted by Istvan diVega

I think the French government probably has a better basis for deciding what should be French law than most people on this forum.

How delightfully dismissive! Should all outside comments on US laws be dismissed as sweepingly?

[aceflor]

Originally Posted by afv011

Funny that there is no word for "cheap/inexpensive" in French, and you have to revert to "not expensive". I guess it says it all.

There is. It is "économique", and it is known and used in the newspapers. Le Monde would not use "pas cher" instead, for instance.

We, as many other countries, are plagued too by bad journalists. Most of them work for tech blogs...

[SleepyBob]

Originally Posted by ApK

I disagree, at least in this case.

The "good of society" in this case appears to be "financial gain" for smaller businesses.

Which in turn maintains a larger diversity of competitors, and a wider spread of local options. When you can't compete on selling price, then you have more flexibility to compete on location and quality of service.

My company sells crop insurance. It's a government program, so we can't charge a different price than our competitors, nor are we allowed to decline anyone. Our marketshare comes from farmers being happy with our agents, and with our claims handling, rather from being $10 cheaper than somebody else.

There's something to be said for being able to stop in at a store down the street instead of having to plan for a 45 minute drive to the other side of town, whether it's to browse for a book, grab a dozen eggs, or to buy a box of framing nails.

It's a quality of life issue, so I can see where countries might want to encourage that, rather than making success dependent on who can have the best economies of scale or thinnest expense structure.

[ApK]

Originally Posted by SleepyBob

I can see where countries might want to encourage that, rather than making success dependent on who can have the best economies of scale or thinnest expense structure.

Once again, I understand, even if I disagree.

I didn't mean to for a comment that I had thought distilled down to:
"Gee, France sure is different than the US"
to start a political debate of which is better.

A sister thread linked to here in the P&R section would, I'm sure, be a hot topic.

ApK

[aceflor]

I don't know how different France is to the US politically, but there definitely is a very different approach to culture in general and books in particular, be it in Paris or any of the big and small cities.
Bookshops are loved, but books are just too expensive. The fixed price did not help us, the consumers, it sure did help the editors, so basically a new book, any probably of the Rentrée Littéraire, will cost you around 18 to 19 € minimum, and you'll have to wait a longer time than in the US for it to turn up as a paperback. Editors are extremely strong here, a tight network with very, very strong ties to the political scene. Amazon has been a pain in the "foot" of the actual government for some time now, so I am not surprised, although at the same time this will harm the FNAC. But ... the FNAC has shops everywhere in France, and is doing little of its business over the web.

On a side note : the constant criticism some of you need to express about France and the French is tiring.

[afv011]

Originally Posted by HarryT

What do you mean when you say "it says it all"?

Nothing really, tongue-in-cheek - just a reminder of my experience while I was in France.

[EowynCarter]

Trouble is, people will only go to bookshop if :
- they know it's there
- it's close enough
- they know they will find the book they are looking for

Third condition being a real problem. Even for the fnac, as big as they are.
I don't believe that law will change anything.

Originally Posted by Mike L

Sorry to be pernickity, but shouldn't it be "pas chère", given that music is feminine in French?

Mike

Yes. But somehow, accents tends to go when french words are used in English.