“Amazon arrogates to itself the power to interpret the law for its own benefit and to trample underfoot the law passed by the sovereign Parliament”. It is in these terms thatAlexandra Charroin Spangenberg, President of the French Bookstore Union (SLF), Pierre Coursièrespresident of the Union of Distributors of Cultural Leisure and Enrique Martinezgeneral manager of Fnac Darty, expressed their dissatisfaction following Amazon's plan to use collection points in supermarkets to drop off online orders for new books, free of postage.
In a column published Thursday, November 21 in The World and taken up by the SLF on its site, the actors of the inter-profession denounce a “bad loser” Who “considers itself above the will of the French legislator, who had nevertheless, in parliamentary debates, excluded these lockers from the delivery arrangements. »
With the implementation of this operation in more than 2,500 points of sale, the e-commerce giant is relying on the possibility given to companies to deliver book orders free of charge without price limits, as long as the Withdrawals are made from businesses that already sell books.
“A strategy of predation”
However, for representatives of bookstores and cultural distribution brands, this type of maneuver overinterprets the notion of “book retailing” to better fuel a “strategy of predation, which consists of unraveling all the provisions which obstruct the extension of one’s empire”.
Professionals also recall the importance of the Lang law of 1981 – regulation which ensures “the equality of citizens in relation to books, the maintenance of a very dense distribution network and support for pluralism in creation and publishing”. And welcome the correction of a legal hole, since filled by the Darcos law, passed in 2021.
“A cultural battle”
For the latter, Amazon's attempts to destabilize once again endanger the preservation of the book ecosystem: “It’s an authentic cultural battle that is playing out before our eyes”they declare, calling on the authorities to “immediately put an end to this disturbance of cultural public order. »
Some of them, like the SLF, challenged the Minister of Culture as soon as the announcement made by Amazon. In response to the concerns of professionals, Rachida Data therefore received, on Tuesday, November 19, the opinion of the book mediator, who will deliver his verdict at the end of January after hearing the different parties.
