Die Neuregelung der Buchpreisbindung in Deutschland – Eine wettbewerbspolitische Analyse

Knorr Andreas and Schulz Christina

ORDO. Jahrbuch für die Ordnung von Wirtschaft und Gesellschaft, 2004, vol. 55, issue 1, 235-268

Abstract: After years of political controversy, the German government passed an act to regulate resale price maintenance for books in 2002. Effectively, it bans all form of price competition at the retail level. According to its proponents - essentially the majority of the country’s publishers, booksellers, authors as well as their respective trade associations and guilds - resale price maintenance for books is a conditio sine qua non for the promotion of culturally valuable, yet unprofitable „quality literature“. What is more, it is deemed necessary to maintain a countrywide network of well-stocked bookstores. Both arguments, however, are unconvincing from an economic point of view, as is demonstrated in this paper. In particular, this is due to its fundamentally flawed institutional design which completely neglects the demand side and is ridden with counterproductive incentives on the supply side.

Date: 2004
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DOI: 10.1515/ordo-2004-0114

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