CALDEIRÃO DE BOLSA

curvedair Escreveu:Keyser, a notícia diz que a Amazon, pratica preços abaixo do custo.

Similarmente, a Alapage já tinha sido condenada também por ter feito o mesmo, isto é, por prática ilegal de preços incluíndo a oferta dos custo de envio.

Amazon in France to End Free Delivery
December 13, 2007
By Barbara Casassus

SOURCE:The Bookseller

The French Booksellers Association, Syndicat de la Librairie Française (SLF), has won a third court case in its fight against free book deliveries and gift vouchers offered by online retailers.

The Versailles court near Paris instructed Amazon.fr to pay the association €100,000 in damages and €1,000 for each day it continues to violate the 1981 Lang law that capped discounts on book prices at 5 percent. The law was named after the then culture minister Jack Lang.

Amazon will have to start paying the daily fine ten days after it receives the official notification of the decision, and has a month to lodge an appeal.

According to French newspaper Le Monde, Amazon France managing director Xavier Garambois was disappointed by the ruling was likely to appeal once his lawyers had examined the decision. He said that "the company would not change its sales policy from one day to the next."

Last June, the Paris appeal court ruled against France Télécom subsidiary Alapage.com for offering free book deliveries and gift vouchers, and awarded the SLF €50,000 in damages. Alapage, which has taken the case to the Supreme Court, as well as rival e-tailers FNAC.com and Chapitre.com were still flagging free book deliveries within mainland France on Dec. 12.

But the SLF will not sue FNAC and Chapitre, because they have promised to stop the practice as soon as Amazon and Alapage do so, according to SLF president Benoît Bougerol. FNAC and Chapitre started offering free deliveries much later than the other two, and only to keep up with their competitors, Bougerol told The Bookseller. He hopes the Supreme Court will hand down its Alapage ruling next year.

The SLF said the purpose of the litigation was to ensure that "internet sites respect the letter and the spirit of the (1981) law."

"Online operators sell at a loss in order to capture market share and destabilize a market that is already fragile," the association added. "It is a dangerous and predatory attitude (and violates) the law's goal of maintaining diversity and cultural creation."

Separately, the SLF announced that Guillaume Husson, head of the French Culture Ministry's book and reading division, would take over from Olivier L'Hostis as SLF general secretary next February.

curvedair Escreveu:Pelo teor da notícia aqui exposta, os livreiros Franceses ganharam uma acção em tribunal ao abrigo das leis de anti-dumping.

Dwer Escreveu:Digo isto pq cá em Portugal a missa deve ser igual, os livreiros portugueses é que ainda não se lembraram de se queixar.

Keyser Soze Escreveu:

redhot Escreveu:Não acho estranho. O lobby dos livreiros franceses está a defender o território deles. Nada mais.

Os consumidores franceses é que se têm de queixar contra os seus compatriotas livreiros...

a questão é que isto foi uma decisão do Tribunal

os "consumidores franceses" vão-se queixar a quem ?..

redhot Escreveu:Não acho estranho. O lobby dos livreiros franceses está a defender o território deles. Nada mais.

Os consumidores franceses é que se têm de queixar contra os seus compatriotas livreiros...

December 12, 2007
Amazon Ordered to End Free Delivery on Books in France
By PETER SAYER, IDG News Service\Paris Bureau, IDG

Amazon.com may not offer free delivery on books in France, the high court in Versailles has ruled.

The action, brought in January 2004 by the French Booksellers' Union (Syndicat de la librairie française), accused Amazon of offering illegal discounts on books and even of selling some books below cost.

The court gave Amazon 10 days to start charging for the delivery of books, which should at least allow the company to maintain the offer through the end-of-year gift-giving season. After that, it must pay a fine of €1,000 (US$1,470) per day that it continues to offer free delivery. It must also pay €100,000 in compensation to the booksellers' union.

Retail prices, particularly of books, are tightly regulated in France.

Using "loss-leaders," or selling products below cost to attract customers, is illegal. Other restrictions apply to books retailers must not offer discounts of more than 5 percent on the publisher's recommended price. Many independent booksellers choose to offer this discount in the form of a loyalty bonus based on previous purchases. Larger booksellers simply slash the sticker price of books.

But the free delivery offered by Amazon exceeded the legal limit in the case of cheaper books, the union charged.

The union said it was pleased with the court's ruling, which would help protect vulnerable small bookshops from predatory pricing practices.

Amazon.com did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Earlier this year, the union won a similar legal victory against Alapage.com, an online bookseller with operations in France, Spain and the U.K. The appeals court ruled that Alapage must pay a fine of €50,000 for illegal pricing practices including the offer of free delivery.

It's not been a good month for U.S. e-commerce sites doing business in France: last week, the French auction regulator sued eBay France for breaching rules on the conduct of auctions. The regulator said that eBay's failure to comply exposed consumers to the risk of fraud. In its defense, eBay France maintained that it is not an auctioneer and that it has "invented another way of buying and selling" not covered by the rules.