Amazon Changing The World, One Over-Regulated Country At A Time

Hopefully, Amazon can strike down ridiculous laws like this one and allow the free market to deliver to the people what they demand.

Courtesy of Ars Technica:

A French appeals court in Versailles ruled that Amazon.com 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 discontinue the offer within ten days or pay a daily fine of €1,000, and an additional €100,000 to the French Booksellers’ Union for the court battle and for the losses it had apparently caused them. With the ten-day grace period over, Amazon has officially announced its plan to ignore the court order and pay the fine instead.

Amazon can do so for 30 days (€30,000), but after that time the court will review the fine. They could raise it, or they could lower it, but given that Amazon has chosen to flip the justices the bird, guess which outcome is more likely? At some point, if Amazon doesn’t change its ways, the fine will probably be jacked up so high that the company has no choice but to comply.

Jeff Bezos, Amazon’s CEO, has taken to the virtual airwaves to rally the French public in support of Amazon’s free shipping. He sent out a recent e-mail to French customers in which he claimed that “France would be the only country in the world where the free delivery practiced by Amazon would be declared illegal.” He then asked people to sign an online petition that has so far garnered more than 120,000 signatures.

It’s a bold and potentially antagonistic move for an American company to make, but Amazon is serious about its free shipping. Judging from the response to Bezos’ e-mail so far, so are Amazon’s customers.

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