For several months now, shipping costs for the purchase of books have increased to €3 in all cases for orders of less than €35 (and €0.1 for those exceeding this amount). But this French legislation could disappear following an appeal by Amazon to the Council of State, which we had already spoken about.
Our colleagues from the informed indeed explain that Amazon has clearly been heard. The public rapporteur of the Council of State would have recommended transmitting the problem to the Court of Justice of the European Union, to verify whether French law is compatible with European rules. The European Commission had already been quite critical of the law, arguing that book sellers without a presence in France were disadvantaged compared to companies that have premises in the country, which offers a simple alternative to shipping costs. students. Taking into account the criticisms in question, it is therefore not excluded that the European Union could impose the withdrawal of the law in question, to probably return to the previous situation in which certain large resellers could absorb shipping costs and therefore become more interesting than independent resellers.
Obviously, Amazon is preaching for its parish, indicating in a recent column that bookstores are rare in a large majority of French municipalities and that they are mainly concentrated in Paris. In addition, the company highlights a survey which shows that 54% of consumers mainly buy books online, that 63% have seen the financial impact of the increase in shipping costs (40% indicate that they read less) and that only 26% of them turned to independent bookstores.
