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.Amazon.com had no comment but they will be required to pay a fine of $150,000 to the booksellers union and are also assessed a fine of $1500/day for each day they retain the free shipping. Now I'm thinking this is a rediculously low amount if the court really intends to penalize them and stop them from providing this service. One would think this is actually good and in the interests of French consumers, mais non.
Assuming they care, perhaps this will go to the European court. As the article notes, pricing is highly regulated in France especially on books.
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