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Is the Price Right: The European Competition Law Dispute over National Systems of Fixed Book Prices

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  06 March 2019

Malcolm MacLaren

Extract

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On July 19, 2001, the European Commission announced that it had reopened proceedings regarding the German system of fixed book prices, asserting anti-competitive effects on cross-border Internet bookselling. The Commission's announcement constitutes a new chapter in a long-running dispute over the legality of the so-called Sammelrevers system that dominates the book trade in Germany and, mutatis mutandis, other European states. The trigger in the present occasion was certain practices alleged of German publishers and book wholesalers regarding the application of the Sammelrevers to direct cross-border sales of books to final consumers. The ongoing integration of the continent's economy and the constant introduction of new technologies and ways of distribution have led many commentators to speak in terms of the German book trade vainly “struggling to hold back the tide of unfettered competition.”

Type
Research Article
Information
German Law Journal , Volume 2 , Issue 13 , 2001 , E4
Copyright
Copyright © 2001 by German Law Journal GbR 

References

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