France levies a minimum delivery fee for online retailers in a bid to protect independent booksellers

On Friday, France’s government announced its plan of imposing a minimum delivery fee of 3 euros on online book orders which are less than 35 euros. This comes months after the legislation was passed in December last year to close the ‘one-cent’ loophole, though a minimum shipping fee which was not decided until recently.

The ‘one-cent’ loophole was reportedly used by online retailers like Amazon and Franc which charged a token of 0.01 euro or 1 cent per delivery, as a French law passed in 2014 prohibited them from delivering books for free. On the other hand, local bookstores charge up to 7 euros for shipping the books, therefore, this move is expected to protect the independent bookstores in the country struggling to compete in the market.

The French ministers have called this phenomenon “distorted competition”. A joint statement by the cultural and finance ministries said, “This will adapt the book industry to the digital era by restoring an equilibrium between large e-commerce platforms, which offer virtually free delivery for books whatever the order size, and bookstores that cannot match these delivery prices.”

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They added that the European Commission will also be notified of its plan and it will take effect after six months after the EU grants approval. Meanwhile, they also indicated that orders above 35 euros can still be charged ‘one-cent’ by online retailers.

Another step taken to close this loophole is that the 3 euro fee cannot be bypassed by offering customers ‘loyalty programmes’ or joint purchases of books with other items, the cultural ministry said.

The bookshops in France have survived the Amazon struggle so far because another law passed in 1981 prohibits discounting on new books, however, the e-commerce giant was able to one-up them by the ‘one-cent’ shipping fee.

In a statement, on Friday, The French Independent Booksellers Association or Syndicat de la Librairie Française (SLF) said that the 3 euro fee was not enough and they will still be selling at a loss sending the books to customers. Therefore, they called the government to lower the post office fees for the shipment of books.

(With inputs from agencies)