While the second -hand book market continues to grow, carried by platforms like Recyclivre, Momox, Amazon or Vinted, the executive wishes to guarantee a fair remuneration for authors and publishers. The Ministry of Culture announced on Friday April 11, 2025 to want to establish a “right -in -law” applied to the sales of second -hand books, thus extending copyright. This development of law was given as the solution envisaged to the economic problems posed by the second -hand book, on the occasion of the arrival of President Emmanuel Macron at the Paris Book Festival which took place from April 11 to 13, 2025 at the Grand Palais.
A legal framework under construction
This measure would allow authors and publishers to perceive remuneration for each resale of a work. The objective is to integrate this system by amendment to the bill on the remuneration of the authors, carried by the senators Sylvie Robert and Laure Darcos. The implementation of the system remains to be specified.
The Minister of Culture, Rachida Dati, seized the Council of State to examine the terms of such a right. The idea is to draw inspiration from the unique price model of the book, pioneer in France, to guarantee the sustainability of the book chain. “It satisfies us,” said Vincent Montagne, president of the National Edit Union (SNE), welcoming a major advance and adding that “France, in the same way that it had been a pioneer with the law on the unique price of the book, can show the way”.
A response to increasing market pressure
During the Paris Book Festival in 2024, President Emmanuel Macron spoke of the possibility of a “contribution” of second -hand book resellers for the book sector, without giving the precise form. Indeed, the large online platforms offer increasingly recent second -hand books, at lower prices than those practiced in bookstores. A study conducted in February with 1,768 authors reveals that 18 % of them saw their book sold on occasion from the day of its release, and 42 % in the following days. This phenomenon represents a significant shortfall for creators, even though they do not benefit from any compensation on these secondary sales today. In one year, the “contribution” project gave the impression of having progressed little. Some parliamentarians, who attached themselves to this subject, had deposited amendments during the discussion of the 2025 budget. None had been adopted.
A model of redistribution to define
The product of this future copyright would be entrusted to “a collective management organization, for the benefit of creation support”, said the Ministry of Culture in a press release, probably the French Society for the interests of the authors of the writing (SOFIA), already in charge of the right of loan and the private copy. The income would then be redistributed in support of creation. The ministry specifies, however, that certain actors could be exempt from this obligation, in particular the structures of the social and solidarity economy, such as Emmaüs, as well as very small second -hand merchants, such as the booksellers of the Seine quays.
