Konrath and friends take on Turow

[MattW]

Originally Posted by howyoudoin

Does this also apply to the second-hand book market, out of curiosity?

No, it does not.

It doesn't apply to clearly marked faulty books either (books with some sort of manufacturing error, e.g. slightly different margins etc). Which led to one bookseller in the 90s to regularly mark perfectly fine books as faulty so they could be sold at a discount.

Originally Posted by BearMountainBooks

So how does that work with ebooks? Mine sell in Germany and I think the price is a direct conversion from the dollar. I set the prices and I think that carries over--but is a tax added to it? Or do you mean that only German produced books have this Buchpreisbindung?

It's the same for ebooks, though books by foreign publishers do not fall under the Buchpreisbindung (only if they're to be sold mainly in Germany or Austria). How exactly the law makes that distinction, I do not know.

BTW, something counts as a book as long as its main function is book-like, i.e. language courses with enclosed CDs or software, to name one example, are considered books and thus fall under Buchpreisbindung.

[QUOTE=HansTWN;2007301And, as far as I know, the Buchpreisbindung works the same for foreign language books.[/QUOTE]

This is not exactly true. While the language is irrelevant in theory, imported books do not fall under the "Buchpreisbindung". While technically true that German publishers enjoy Buchpreisbindung for their books in Austria and vice versa (an import, no doubt), US and UK books (among others) can be priced freely. I am sure the law has a perfectly fine mechanism for this.

Matt

[BearMountainBooks]

Thanks, Matt. That answers the question nicely.

It's a shame that books are that expensive (and have such a high tax) when produced in country. Makes no sense. I understand Australia works the same way and they aren't happy about the Kindle because residents there are starting to be able to get some very coveted books for lower prices. Bookdepository was already cutting into the local market (which is ridiculously expensive) and now they have ebooks. As a reader, I'd sure be happy about it!

[fjtorres]

Originally Posted by HansTWN

The US actually seems to be an exception around the world that prices shown are pre-tax.

The US is a federated republic with around 5000 different tax regimes, yet advertising is usually national. (Or at least regional.) Even small local chains usually span multiple sales tax zones. It is not uncommon in some areas for sales taxes to be composites of a state, county, and city tax so a move of just a few miles can result in a very different tax burden.

Advertising the unburdened price also helps separate the intrinsic price of the product from the tax burden so citizens are always aware of the cost of statism. (TINSTAAFL!) Transparency is a good tool against corruption.

Different cultures, different social contracts.