Amazon's free shipping costing €1,000 per day in France

Did you hear the one about Amazon? It offered free shipping in France, got sued for it by the French Booksellers' Union, and lost. Now it's choosing to pay €1,000 a day rather than follow the court's order. Ba-da-bing!

No, it's not funny, but that's because it's not a joke. The Tribunal de Grande Instance (a French appeals court) in Versailles ruled back in December that Amazon was violating the country's 1981 Lang law with its free shipping offer. 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 company was told to start charging within ten days or pay a daily fine. It also owes €100,000 to the French Booksellers' Union for the court battle and for the losses it has apparently caused them. With the holidays over and the ten-day grace period over, Amazon has officially announced its plan to ignore the court order and pay the fine instead, according to the International Herald Tribune.

Link

There is actually a law forbidding booksellers to give more than a 5% discount in France!

Can someome spell to protectionism and planned echonomy?

France is more and more looking like the Gaullian socialistic nightmare they refute to be. Take for instance the fact that France is behind the proposed legislation in EU of forbidding ordinary light bulbs in favour of low energy bulbs. And the high protective tolls on low energy bulbs from outside the EU meaning to protect the Europeian manufacturers. But this is of course not something that the Europeian manufacturers likes, because they all have outsourced the manufaction of the LE- bulbs to China! Which in turn means that the cost is so high that people does not want to buy them! Please, please , pleeease some one tell the French that planned echonomy never ever in history has worked. And while you're at it, give the message to (just about) all the other countrys in the EU...