Switzerland cancels price fixing for books

The paper comments that the Swiss government has lifted price controls on books in the German-speaking part of Switzerland - such controls never existed in the French part - and wishes Germany would do the same. "The Swiss have always had a problem with dismantling cartels. So the decision that publishers, authors and booksellers no longer can depend on 'cultural support' is even more remarkable. In the short term, prices in German-speaking Switzerland will hardly drop below the German level. The country is too much of a high-priced island for that. But the decision underscores just how out-dated the fixing of book prices has become. In general, dealers in Germany themselves already avoid the rigid price structure in any way they can. Just rummage through the tables of 'modern antiques.' In the book market, too, the law of supply and demand achieves the necessary balance for those involved... In the French-speaking part of the country, there is no price fixing. Nevertheless the number of titles remains large and the density of book trade even higher than in the protected German-speaking part."

» full article (external link, German)
More from the press review on the subject » Literature, » Switzerland
All available articles from » Jürgen Dunsch

» To the complete press review of Friday, May 4, 2007