Back in December, the French appeal court Tribunal de Grande Instance ruled that Amazon.fr was violating the country’s 1981 Lang law with its free shipping offer. This law forbids booksellers from offering discounts of more than 5 percent off the list price. Amazon was ruled as having broken this law if free shipping is factored into the cost of the book.

They were told they would face a daily fine if they didn’t start charging within ten days. This can continue for 30 days (€30,000) and then it will be reviewed by the court. They can increase, decrease, or extend the fine. Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos said in an email to the site’s customers: “France would be the only country in the world where the free delivery practiced by Amazon would be declared illegal.” Amazon was also ordered to pay €100,000 to a French bookstore union.

The law was originally passed when supermarkets were outselling independent book sellers. It was supposed to mean that customers had access to all kinds of books, not just massively discounted best-sellers.

Amazon say that “are determined to follow every avenue available to us to overturn this law.” They are unikely to succeed as the law has come before the European Court of Justice twice before. On both occasions it has been affirmed. The law is not considered anticompetitive because all book retailers are held to the same standard.

You can read the extended article at the International Herald Tribune website.

I was reading a newspaper the other day and I came across an article plugging a new book “365 Ways To Change The World”. That’s one for every day of the year.

There are some good things in there that are easy to do and the author claims they can make a real difference to the world.

Here are some of the best ones:

• Stop eating prawns - More than four million tonnes of prawns are shipped every year. For every 1000 people who stop eating them, 5.4 tonnes of marine life can be saved. More information
• Join in the beautiful game - Buy three footballs. Keep one for yourself to play with, kick the second into a school ground as an act of generosity and donate the third to a youth football project in an African slum. Send it to the National Youth Organisation (Bidii Foundation) PO Box 28838, 00200 Nairobi, Kenya
• Stamp out junk mail - Contact the Mail Preference Service via the Post Office and tell them you don’t want unsolicited mail. You will be removed from mailing list for five years.
• Share your car - The average UK commuter drives 19 miles a day. Cutting that by half through car sharing would save 648kg of carbon dioxide over a year - the same as that absorbed by 216 trees.
• Don’t use plastic bags - There are 46000 pieces of plastic waste in every square mile of sea. Bags kill 100000 birds, whales, seals and turtles every year.
• Recycle your mobile phone - Fonebank is a scheme which lets you take your old phone to a collection point or put it in an envelope and post it to them for free. They distribute the phones all over the world. www.fonebank.com
• Save enery in the home - Replace three standard bulbs with low-energy alternatives and prevent 136kg of carbon being released into the atmosphere each year. If you turn your thermostat down two degrees you can save a further 272kg of carbon.
• Turn a loved one into a diamond - LifeGem in Chicago, Illinois, will take a few grains of your cremated remains and subject them to high temperature and pressure. After 18 weeks you emerge as a sparkling one-carat diamond.
• Ride a bike naked - The World Naked Bike Ride in June is an annual event where cyclists protest against oil dependancy and celebrate the power of the human body - naked.

Text from the Sunday Mirror