Amazon launches in Italy – with a unique advantage

Amazon has launched its latest branch in Italy, and from the looks of things, they have a unique advantage, thanks to the remarkably complex laws regarding book pricing in Italy.

According to a publication from the Federation of European Publishers (download the .pdf here), bookshops in Italy are limited to offering a maximum of 15% discount from the publisher’s recommended price.

There are exceptions: old stock can sometimes be discounted, as can books sold to schools. Unusually, though, they also allow unlimited discounts for books sold online.

Effectively, this means that Amazon’s Italian store will be able to sell books at an unlimited discount, while their bricks and mortar competitors will be limited to – at most – knocking 15% from the price of their books.

This may be a unique example of a case where price protection laws could actually work against the independent bookshops, and in favour of Amazon.