British bookshops are pleading with the government to stand up for them against Amazon after France pledged €9m (£7.7m) of funding to help its booksellers fight back against the "destroyer of bookshops".
Tim Godfray, chief executive of the Booksellers Association, said Britain's bookshops, closing down at a rate of more than one a week, consider Amazon "the main threat to their business". He warned that if Amazon continues its "relentless expansion" even more bookshops will be driven out of business, and publishers and agents will also be forced to shut up shop, he said.
Godfray, whose association represents almost 1,000 British booksellers, called for government action as France's culture minister Aurélie Filippetti accused Amazon of undercutting traditional rivals to create a "virtual monopoly".
"Everyone has had enough of Amazon, which by dumping practices, slashes prices to get a foothold in markets only to raise them as soon as they have established a virtual monopoly," she said in a speech to booksellers in Bordeaux. "The book and reading sector is facing competition from certain sites using very possible means to enter the French and European book market... it is destroying bookshops."
Filippetti, who is also a published novelist, said she was considering banning Amazon from being able to offer free postage and may end the system allowing 5% discounting on books.
France has fixed book prices, dating back to a 1981 law, which means readers pay the same whether they buy from an online retailer high-street shop or small bookseller. The law allows for a maximum discount on books of 5%. In discounting books by 5%, Amazon is not breaking the law. But small booksellers argue they can't compete because Amazon also provides free postage and free fast delivery deals on top of the 5% discount.
Some of the funding, which had been previously announced, will be used to modernise traditional bookshops and bring them online.
Filipetti has previous complained about "disloyal competition" from companies such as Amazon "which aren't subject to the same tax regime as companies physically based in France".
She did not mention Amazon's recent decision to open several large distribution centres in France.
Her outspoken comments follow a series of confrontations between France and the US online companies as it seeks to defend its "exception culturelle" to protect against the overwhelming English-language dominance of the internet.
Last month Arnaud Montebourg, France's outspoken industry minister, blocked Yahoo! from buying a 75% stake in Daily Motion, the popular French video-sharing site. He said Yahoo!'s attempt to "devour" Daily Motion was not in French interests. Keith Smith, who organised a 1750,000-signature petition calling on Amazon to pay more UK corporation tax, said booksellers are worried that if Amazon continues to grow "there will be high streets without any bricks and mortar book shops left. What sort of society would we be living in if that happened?"
Amazon's main UK subsidiary paid only £3.2m in tax last year despite overall UK sales of £4.2bn.
More than 73 independent booksellers closed down last year, bringing the total number of UK bookshops to 1,028, compared to 1,535 in 2005.
Jane Howe, owner of Broadway Bookshop, in east London, said: "We really need the government to do something to protect independent bookshops. We are the heart of the community – sometimes you are the only person that a customer has spoken to all week.
"If the government want to keep any type of integrity in any high street they've got to support small businesses. It would be really wonderful if they took notice of what France is trying."
Philip Jones, editor of The Bookseller, said the government should look seriously at the French initiatives and "wake up" to the damage Amazon is causing to the book trade and the retail sector in general. "The publishing industry has been trying to tell the government that this isn't benign growth," he said. "[They need to look more proactively to protect the whole high street."
Jones said it would be "lovely" if Maria Miller, the secretary of state for culture, media and sport, spoke up about the cultural importance of books. "Books are thought of as high culture in France and Germany, they're not really here."
This article originally appeared on guardian.co.uk
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