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France: Hachette Livre wants publishers to join their digital platform; Google and Amazon must agree to publishers’ pricing
January 19, 2010 | 8:48 am
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By Paul Biba
Hachette Livre of France wants to establish a digital book distribution platform. The platform would be created jointly by Numilog for Hachette Livre, Eden-Livres for Flammarion, Gallimard and La Martinière, and e-Plateforme for Editis and Média Participations. More info here.
The platform would supply online sellers, including Amazon and Google. Interestingly, Amazon and Google could participate only if they respect the publishers prices. This sets the stage for some pressure on the two giants, as the three publishers take up 80% of French language books. The publishers also rejected having a platform developed by booksellers.
According to Hachette, their ebook sales in December, in the US, totaled $5 million, which was more than all of 2008.
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Amazon, e-book, e-books, ebook, ebooks, France, Google, Paul Biba, publishing
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Comments:
While I truly understand the fears publishers have about Amazon setting a low price point and then pressuring us to justify it, there seem serious issues with allowing recommended prices to be enforceable. At least in the US, antitrust rulings have held these to be unlawful (although the current court seems less interested in antitrust). At any rate, I’m happy to allow Amazon to discount my books, as long as they base their payments to me on list price (which is what they do).
Rob Preece
Publisher