DHAKA: French lawmakers on Thursday approved a bill that will prevent Amazon from offering free deliveries of discounted books.

The bill, designed to support small bookstores struggling in the face of giant online retailers, was backed unanimously in the lower house National Assembly, reports The Straits Times.

It will seek to restrict the likes of Amazon from combining free delivery with discounts of up to five percent on books, the maximum allowed under existing French legislation.

In 1981, the government ruled that editors must set a unique selling price for their books in a bid to protect small retailers, but added that stores could apply a discount of up to five percent.

BDST: 1909 HRS, OCT 03, 2013
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