According to sources, this year's fair was supposed to be held in collaboration with the e-commerce giant Amazon. Amazon has announced that they are pulling out of the collaboration with the book fair. The reason for Amazon's withdrawal is a conflict with France's interest organization for booksellers, Syndicat de la librairie francaise (SLF).
SLF has stated that they will not participate in the fair due to the Amazon collaboration. The conflict concerns the interpretation of a 2023 law requiring at least three euros in shipping costs for the delivery of new books. Amazon claims that the regulation means they can send their packages for free to parcel lockers.
Amazon is not friends of the book.
Representatives of the book industry claim that Amazon is circumventing the law and distorting competition through this maneuver. Amazon has accused SLF of kidnapping the book fair for their own purposes. This is not the first time booksellers in France have fought against Amazon.
In 2014, the 'anti-Amazon law' was passed, which, among other things, prohibited Amazon from giving discounts on books. France has the most bookstores per capita in the world, meaning 3,500 bookstores for a population of 69 million people. Since 1981, France has had fixed book prices, meaning that book publishers set the price of the books they publish.
Amazon's 'predatory behavior' is a risk for authors, publishers, and bookstores.
The fixed book price system, which also exists in Germany, Spain, Italy, and Norway, was implemented to protect independent bookstores from price dumping by large book chains. In Sweden, fixed book prices were abolished in the 1970s. " It remains unclear how the Paris Book Fair will proceed without Amazon's collaboration, and the current status of the 2023 law's enforcement regarding shipping costs for books is not specified.