PARIS (AP) — If the French Senate gets its way, online retail giant Amazon and its online peers won't be able to offer free book deliveries anymore.
In an unusual show of unity Thursday, the upper house of France's parliament unanimously approved a bill that would amend a 33 year-old law regulating prices in the book market — and help struggling independent book sellers, which have faced tough competition from cost-cutting online vendors in the digital age.
The bill would allow online vendors like U.S.-based Amazon to cut the regular delivery price by up to 5 percent, but not provide free delivery. It differs slightly from a bill passed in parliament's lower house in October, which said nothing about barring free delivery.
The two houses are working out final language for the bill.