Leave it to the French
To decide free shipping by Amazon isn't French. In fact, it's unlawful:
The beauty of all this? The lawsuit leading the court to rule against Amazon was brought by the plaintiff, the French Booksellers' Union. What is it with European unions and governments where they seemingly do what they can to disallow competitive business practices? This sort of law only destroys pricing competition; without which the consumer ends up paying more. Perhaps you end up with more mom and pop shops staying in business, but isn't that a choice that the consumer should make?
You know, in America we call that price fixing. Good for the citizens of France, they're protesting via an online petition (sponsored by Amazon, of course). Bless their consumer hearts.
(courtesy of Ars)
That law forbids booksellers from offering discounts of more than 5 percent off the list price, and Amazon was found to be exceeding that discount when the free shipping was factored in.
The beauty of all this? The lawsuit leading the court to rule against Amazon was brought by the plaintiff, the French Booksellers' Union. What is it with European unions and governments where they seemingly do what they can to disallow competitive business practices? This sort of law only destroys pricing competition; without which the consumer ends up paying more. Perhaps you end up with more mom and pop shops staying in business, but isn't that a choice that the consumer should make?
You know, in America we call that price fixing. Good for the citizens of France, they're protesting via an online petition (sponsored by Amazon, of course). Bless their consumer hearts.
(courtesy of Ars)
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