Each Friday, join us for a #FutureChat session, live on Twitter, at 4 p.m. London time, 11 a.m. New York time, 8 a.m. Los Angeles, 5 p.m. Berlin, 3 p.m. GMT.
As Philip Jones puts it in today’s The Bookseller lead editorial, All about Amazon, recent moves by Seattle “show the giant e-tailer striking out for new territory.”
And hey, the territory strikes back at every opportunity, doesn’t it?
One that might have skittered past you in this busy week of Amazonian news is France’s passage, after delays, of what some call the “anti-Amazon bill.” From Agence France-Presse, as picked up by the Luxemburger Wort:
French lawmakers adopted a bill on Thursday that will prevent Amazon and other online giants from offering free deliveries of discounted books, in a bid to support the country’s small bookshops. The Senate gave its approval for the bill, which had already been unanimously backed in the lower house National Assembly, and it is expected to be signed into law by President Francois Hollande within the next two weeks.
And online at The Bookseller, here’s our Barbara Casassus:
The target of the bill is Amazon, which Culture Minister Aurélie Filippetti and book professionals have repeatedly accused of dumping through tax evasion and unfair competition to other booksellers by combining the maximum allowed price discount of 5% with free book deliveries for no minimum order.
By Porter Anderson | @Porter_Anderson
The FutureBook: Forget the Rubicon: #FutureChat Crosses the Amazon
Read the full post at: The Bookseller’s The FutureBook