2023-09-26 07:04:24
The online commerce giant is forced by the State to raise certain prices.
Amazon and its almost free deliveries of certain products are (partly) over. The online commerce giant, used by 2/3 of French people at least once a year and known for its speed of shipping at discounted prices, will have to change gear on shipments within a few days concerning one of its rays. And it will be the same for Fnac…
A new law forces these distributors to apply a minimum price on the delivery of books, from the beginning of October. In 2021, Senator LR Laure Darcos had a text adopted by Parliament aimed at preventing free delivery of books. The objective: to allow a rebalancing of the market between large distributors such as Amazon and smaller bookstores, which cannot afford to apply free shipping costs.
The provision will come into force on October 4, 2023. From this date, the delivery costs for one or more new books purchased online, the total price of which does not exceed €35, will be, at least, €3, regardless of the platform (Amazon, Fnac, etc.). Amazon and Fnac customers will therefore see their book shipping costs increase significantly on small baskets, the delivery costs currently applied for any basket being 0.01ct.
Please note, this price of 3 euros is a floor price. Each platform will be able to set its shipping costs freely. The only condition is that they are equal to or greater than three euros. Orders whose amount exceeds 35 euros will also be affected. This new pricing will apply when a book is included in an order. If a book is purchased in addition to an item of clothing and an electronic accessory, the fees associated with the book(s) will apply. In addition, Amazon Prime subscribers will also have to pay these fees, as will members of the Fnac+ program.
For Frédéric Duval, general manager of Amazon France, “this measure will penalize readers” because “nearly one in two books sold by Amazon is shipped to small towns and countryside, that is to say to territories often devoid of bookstores”, as he explained to Les Echos. But for Guillaume Husson, general delegate of the French Bookstore Union (SLF), “these are proportionate measures which put the book at the same level as other products, nothing more, nothing less. They just correct an anomaly. “
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