Sophie Fornairon's independent bookshop in Paris has survived Amazon thanks to a French law that prohibits price discounting on new books. Fornairon now hopes that new legislation setting a minimum price for book deliveries will level the playing field. While French law prohibits free book deliveries, Amazon charges a single centime (cent); local book stores charge about 5-7 euros ($5.82-8.15). The legislation has been adopted by parliament but not yet enacted. More than 20% of the 435 million books sold in France in 2019 were bought online. Senator Laure Darcos drafted the law after seeing that bookstores maintained 70% of their business during COVID lockdowns because government reimbursed the shipping fees.
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