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#16 | |
Wizard
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Join Date: Apr 2009
Location: Edinburgh, Scotland
Device: Kindle 3, Samsung Galaxy
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Quote:
The Net Book Agreement (NBA) forced retailers to sell at a particular price. It was a form of restrictive practice that was made illegal in UK, for everything except books, in the 1960s. The retail price of ebooks is not subject to any such control. The retailer is free to discount books, or not, according to their judgement. If the price that Amazon charges for a particular Kindle version is too high, you are free to buy elsewhere. That was not the case with the NBA. |
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#17 | |
The Grand Mouse 高貴的老鼠
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Karma: 315160596
Join Date: Jul 2007
Location: Norfolk, England
Device: Kindle Oasis
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Quote:
Back on-topic. There isn't a UK ebook version of "A Room With A View". There is a US ebook store edition. Penguin certainly seem to have UK paper rights. But whether they don't have UK ebook rights, or whether they just have decided not to release it, they don't have a UK ebook edition. Sigh... |
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#18 | |
The Grand Mouse 高貴的老鼠
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Karma: 315160596
Join Date: Jul 2007
Location: Norfolk, England
Device: Kindle Oasis
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Quote:
How is it not the same? The agency agreement forces all retailers to sell any particular ebook at the retail price set by the publisher of that ebook. In particular, retailers are not allowed to discount the ebook at all. Any retailer not agreeing to the agency terms cannot sell ebooks from that publisher at all. |
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#19 | |
eBook Enthusiast
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Karma: 93383099
Join Date: Nov 2006
Location: UK
Device: Kindle Oasis 2, iPad Pro 10.5", iPhone 6
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Quote:
Eg, to pick an example entirely at random, here is the Kindle e-book of Agatha Christie's "Murder on the Orient Express". You'll see that it says under it "This price was set by the publisher". Amazon cannot discount it. As it happens, in this particular case, I think that the publisher's price of £3.99 is entirely reasonable, but that's certainly not always the case. |
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#20 | |
The Grand Mouse 高貴的老鼠
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Join Date: Jul 2007
Location: Norfolk, England
Device: Kindle Oasis
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Quote:
Hopefully we'll eventually also see lower-price bundles of back-catalogue titles. There are about 80 Agatha Christie Novels and short story collections. I suspect that the publishers are much more likely to sell all 80 in a bundle for (say)£99 than they are to sell 25 or more individual titles to any particular person. i.e. they'd make more money overall. If I didn't have them all already, such a bundle would be almost irresistible! |
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#21 | ||
Wizard
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Join Date: Apr 2009
Location: Edinburgh, Scotland
Device: Kindle 3, Samsung Galaxy
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Quote:
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Or does it? I thought the agency model was between Amazon and the large publishers. Are you saying that it allows the publisher to fix the price for all retailers in all ebook formats? By all means, correct me if I have misunderstood. |
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#22 | |
The Grand Mouse 高貴的老鼠
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Join Date: Jul 2007
Location: Norfolk, England
Device: Kindle Oasis
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Quote:
Agency publishers have agency contracts with ALL ebook retailers selling their ebooks, and (because of a clause in their contracts with Amazon) must sell at other sites at or above the price the book is listed at Amazon. |
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#23 |
eBook Enthusiast
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Location: UK
Device: Kindle Oasis 2, iPad Pro 10.5", iPhone 6
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That's it exactly. What the publisher is saying is "we will only allow you to sell our books if you act as our agent, rather than a retailer". The retailer of course has the choice not to sell the publisher's books at all, but if they want to sell the books, the publisher sets the price. It's price fixing, pure and simple, and that's why the OFT has launched an investigation into it.
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#24 |
Wizard
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Join Date: Apr 2009
Location: Edinburgh, Scotland
Device: Kindle 3, Samsung Galaxy
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Harry and P Durrant,
Thank you for the clarification. I stand corrected. Based on what you say, this definitely seems to be a restrictive practice within the meaning of the act. It will be interesting to see the outcome of the OFT investigation. |
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#25 | |
Zealot
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Location: Johannesburg, South Africa
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Quote:
Cheers Paul Last edited by Paulinafrica; 02-07-2011 at 12:47 PM. |
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#26 | |
Addict
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Join Date: Nov 2010
Location: England
Device: Boox Go Color 7, Kobo Forma, Kindle Keyboard
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Quote:
![]() I don't think anyone's going to convince me that setting ebook prices higher than real books, then adding VAT (on ebooks ONLY) is sensible, fair or anything other than restrictive practice. It's one of those things you're all just going to have to put up with me moaning about from time to time ![]() The thing is, for a lot of the books I want, and because I have a Kindle, I'm kind of forced to either buy at the outrageous prices or do without the book I want on my Kindle. I know there are other means to get the book, but that's not the point really. If I didn't want to buy from Amazon, I'd have bought a Nook or Sony reader. |
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#27 |
Connoisseur
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Join Date: Jan 2011
Device: Kindle 3 Wifi
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All I know is that I greatly wish to have a few books from the UK store, but can't purchase them. My soul is yearning to read those books.
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#28 |
Enthusiast
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Join Date: Feb 2011
Device: Kindle
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Vote with your money.
If the prices are too high don't buy them, if everyone were to do this the publishers wouldn't rip you guys off. I know it's easier said than done. |
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#29 |
Wizard
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Location: Walton-on-Thames, Surrey, England, UK
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In fact the tax rate is 15%, the standard VAT rate in Luxenburg where Amazon EU Sarl is registered. This may change in 2015 to the rate in the cutomer's location as for mail order paper books. As to why, the EU tax site has some talk about how ebooks are "more than just text" think multimedia perhaps.
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