Amazon’s Kindle offer ‘breaks law’

INTERNET retail giant Amazon has fallen foul of French law with its latest service - unlimited access to tens of thousands of books on its Kindle digital reader for a set monthly fee.

The Kindle Unlimited service, effectively a book version of the Netflix video on demand service, offers unlimited access to more than 700,000 texts, including 20,000 French-language titles, for a flat fee of €9,99 a month.

But it violates a 2011 law which says that only publisher of a book has the right to set the price of both paper and digital versions, according to France’s literary ombudsman.

France’s Culture minister Fleur Pellerin asked the country’s ‘books czar’ Laurence Engel to examine the legality of Kindle Unlimited when it launched in December 2014 after writers' association La Societe des Gens de Lettres demanded government intervention.

Ms Pellerin said at the time that the service, “does not seem to respect the principle of fair remuneration for all players in publishing, particularly authors”.

E-shopping giant Amazon has been given three months to bring its deal in line with French law.

Also read: Amazon snubs anti-Amazon law

Photo: Tim Lucas