President Emmanuel Macron pleaded Friday for the establishment of a contribution on the second-hand book market, in order to prevent its players from circumventing the law providing for a single price for new books in France.
“We are going to put in place at least one contribution which can help protect the single price and allow our authors, publishers and translators to also be better helped,” explained Mr. Macron without further details, specifying that the Minister of Culture, Rachida Dati, was going to make announcements on the subject before the end of the show. “What is true is that the used book, when it is marked by certain platforms, it is a kind of misuse, in any case a circumvention of this single price,” added the president of the Republic.
Second-hand books are in fact a serious competitor to publishing houses, which see recent titles arriving at reduced prices. The Xerfi firm estimated this second-hand market in 2020 at 888 million euros. That of the new one was 4.3 billion euros, according to the GfK firm. On the book market, France stands out by having been the first country in the world, in 1981, to pass a law imposing a single price on new books, among other measures to ensure the sustainability of bookstores. This law has since been copied in other countries.
Visit from Emmanuel Macron this Friday
President Emmanuel Macron went to the Paris Book Festival on Friday morning, where he was to meet exhibitors, accompanied by his wife, the Élysée announced. The president, also accompanied by the Minister of Culture Rachida Dati, is expected in particular at the Quebec Pavilion, guest of honor at the festival which opened Friday and which is held until Sunday at the ephemeral Grand Palais.
“The Paris Book Festival allows you to meet a large number of novelists, poets, designers and essayists of all styles representing the broad panorama of contemporary editorial creation,” said the Élysée.