Court Limits Sales on eBay

On Ebay, you can sell just about anything to anyone who is willing to shell out the purchase price, no matter how low or how high it may be. But this rule of the virtual shopping world no longer applies in Germany, at least not on books.

A restriction was enacted on Tuesday by a Frankfurt court. The ruling strengthened a provision in German law that allows publishers to fix the prices of their books.

The case was filed by a bookstore owner in the central German city of Darmstadt. The retailer was seeking to stop a journalist from selling review copies of books, which he had received for free, below their fixed prices. Within six weeks, the journalist used Ebay to sell more than 40 new books, some of which were still in wrappers.

The court's decision made clear that even private sellers have to stick to the fixed book price if they regularly sell new books.

Publishers' and cultural organizations welcomed the decision. The chairman of the association for the German book trade, Dieter Schormann, called the ruling "a good and important day for the German book trade." The German Cultural Council said it saw the ruling as another triumph in the quest to maintain fixed book prices in Germany. In 2002, fixed book prices were challenged on the grounds that they infringed upon EU competition law, but publishers successfully defended their right to set prices.

Books have been granted an exemption from free-market pricing because they are considered to be an important cultural good. The system was introduced in an effort to ensure the survival of small retailers and guarantee that books are readily available throughout the country.

"Fixed book prices are indispensable for the literature market," said Olaf Zimmermann, the council's managing director. "Without them, publishing houses could not invest in literary works whose sales are limited. Fixed book prices ensure literary variety."

Jun. 18, 2004