On Wednesday the Senate approved almost unanimously - only radical senators abstained - a bill on the "New discipline of the price of the books" promoted by Riccardo Levi, Senator PD. The law stipulates that no discounts can be applied to books more than 15 percent of their money. Only on occasions of special "campaigns", to be made for a period not exceeding one month and never in December, discounts can reach 20 percent, but on those occasions, if they want, booksellers can avoid application discounts. The books sold mail-order, ie on the Internet, can not be discounted more 20 per cent. The law will come to the House in the coming weeks, where even this roof should be raised to 15 percent.
blatant contradictions of this initiative are twofold. One is the prohibition of intervention such as this and all the talk - including the very bipartisan - the need for reform in the liberal sense the laws of this country. Or between the rhetoric of the "liberal revolution" in the center fills the mouth for years - the last time a few days ago, with the proposed amendment to the Articles of the Constitution on freedom of enterprise - and blatantly statist intervention and Regulatory . One of the deregulation and "at no cost reforms" promoted by the PD to unlock the economy and encourage consumption, and clearly an intervention that harnesses the market further and benefit everyone except the consumer. As he said in his speech Senator radical Perduca:
"I'm sorry somehow crack this common purpose, but I do it because I should be consigned to history of the Italian Republic, the resistance of a minimum of liberal and liberal approach towards sacred and holy union between publishers, booksellers and the major organizations representing users and consumers, who may not have gone down in history to make the interests of themselves "The second
contradiction is that between the announced intention of ever making more accessible books and culture and the practice of preventing the lowering of prices. Particularly striking is that the publishers - always ready to defend the privileged system of VAT on books - suddenly forget the issue of price suppression for players when such restraint may be offered by companies that are competitors like the big online booksellers . Because in fact, this is it: a barrier to corporate publishers and booksellers in the traditional package of market-competitive modern libraries online, with benefits for consumers who increasingly come from free regimes and increased competition. It's a bit 'as if the market opening of the telephone operators had been accompanied by a prohibition on competitive prices to those of Telecom.
Finally, there is also a comic chutzpah in the arguments with which a provision of this invasion has been proposed and presented as a law to protect and safeguard the sacred books of value and importance of their readers. The books, the senator said in the courtroom of PD Vincenzo Vita, would be threatened "by the arrival of large hypermarkets" and "online sales" because if "you selling on giants like Amazon, we'll disappear for a qualitative Italian culture the best culture of the global village "(sic). It is not clear how Amazon would endanger the sales and distribution of books rather than encourage them. It is unclear why to ensure that the books cost more and that their price is bound by law to facilitate their sale and dissemination. Above all, it is unclear how this rule could benefit those who bully them buy books and read them.
is clear, however, that this provision benefits the person sells the books. Many of these, at least: that the difficulties of most libraries are undoubted, but not solved by protectionist measures, or so it keeps changing. The rule benefits the person is allergic competition, the risks and opportunities that this entails. Who benefits - in stormy times in which salvation can only come from the flexibility and openness to innovation - wants to ensure its survival at the expense of books and who reads them. The promoters of this rule has been repeatedly stated that the law was written by many hands, along with those associations of booksellers and publishers. This is of course a legitimate operation, provided it be said plainly, this law is a benefit to booksellers and publishers, unjust and inappropriate, which results in preventing the books are easier and cheaper to buy and read.
Source: http://www.ilpost.it/2011/03/04/legge-levi-sconti-libri/
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