France moves to shield its book industry from Amazon
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Re: France moves to shield its book industry from Amazon
#2All for a way to protect small businesses which actually pay local taxes vs. Amazon which doesn't pay taxes in the US at all - but not sure a minimum ship price is the best approach.
Isn't there a better way, perhaps based on physical presence?
Re: France moves to shield its book industry from Amazon
#3Is there a word for laws that disproportionately affect people in rural areas so that a government can play protectionist for urban companies? I hate Amazon as much as anyone, but in this case they're definitely not wrong, even if they're probably lying about their reasoning.
Re: France moves to shield its book industry from Amazon
#4This seems to be incentivising the customer to shop in-person instead of online and seems spectacularly uninspired, they could have simply waived taxes on books for companies headquartered in France? Or really anything that isn't simply forcing the customer to pay shipping?
Re: France moves to shield its book industry from Amazon
#5And laissez-faire was a French invention.
Re: France moves to shield its book industry from Amazon
#6This is stupid. It will prevent local business from using "free" shipping. Better way will be to just ban Amazon until they start paying right taxes.
Re: France moves to shield its book industry from Amazon
#7It's funny that we still pin Amazon against bookstores - I was under the impression that Amazon is shipping _everything_ those days, and that books are not what most people go to Amazon for any more.
Re: France moves to shield its book industry from Amazon
#8My experience tells me that the practical outcome of this new regulation is that shipping will become more expensive for books.
It will not prevent customers to stop shopping online, so no effect for legacy bookstore.s
Like most goverment proposed solutions: This will actually create a new problem not fix the origintal intented cause.
Re: France moves to shield its book industry from Amazon
#9Is there a word for laws that disproportionately affect people in rural areas so that a government can play protectionist for urban companies? I hate Amazon as much as anyone, but in this case they're definitely not wrong , even if they're probably lying about their reasoning.
I can't read the full article thanks to the paywall so maybe I'm missing it, but: where is the urban protectionism here?
More generally, my limited understanding of French politics is that they have a very strong agricultural interest that's disproportionate to the populace, similar to the US. The limited news I read about French domestic politics indicates that their government generally accommodates and subsidizes non-urban citizens, much like ours does.
Edit: Here's the (Amazon) quote about rural concerns:
> Amazon said the legislation, adopted by parliament but not yet enacted, would punish those in rural areas who cannot easily visit a bookstore and rely on delivery.
Re: France moves to shield its book industry from Amazon
#10What is the origin of the law that bans free book deliveries?