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"La Commission européenne prône à son tour l'harmonisation des taux applicables aux supports physiques et numériques."

"With this update, we're providing specific information about Amazon's objectives. A key objective is lower e-book prices. Many e-books are being released at $14.99 and even $19.99. That is unjustifiably high for an e-book. With an e-book, there's no printing, no over-printing, no need to forecast, no returns, no lost sales due to out-of-stock, no warehousing costs, no transportation costs, and there is no secondary market -- e-books cannot be resold as used books. E-books can be and should be less expensive. It's also important to understand that e-books are highly price-elastic. This means that when the price goes up, customers buy much less. We've quantified the price elasticity of e-books from repeated measurements across many titles. For every copy an e-book would sell at $14.99, it would sell 1.74 copies if priced at $9.99. So, for example, if customers would buy 100,000 copies of a particular e-book at $14.99, then customers would buy 174,000 copies of that same e-book at $9.99. Total revenue at $14.99 would be $1,499,000. Total revenue at $9.99 is $1,738,000. "

"The current disputes between Amazon and its suppliers concern the retailer's demand for better margins. Despite trail-blazing innovation and vast revenue (nearly $75bn in 2013) Amazon needs to arrest its losses and calm its stockholders. This explains why the company is reportedly making requests for substantial additional terms from publishers, big and small, which will result in a a significant reduction in the bottom line for the firms concerned. Many smaller publishing houses are not that profitable to start with, but the retailer seems indifferent, at best, about whether it drives its suppliers out of business. And because Amazon is capable of demanding new terms every year, it is difficult for publishing executives to plan ahead, or adjust their business models quickly enough. [...] The result of these changes will be a much dimished eco-system for stories and ideas, with many fewer publishers and authors earning anything. Ultimately this may benefit a small number of people who hold stock in Amazon, but it will do precious little for our wider culture."

"How much should an e-book cost? Publishers set the retail price for a current e-book, like James Patterson's "Invisible," at $14.99. That's a lot less than a hardcover copy of the book ($25.50), but it's still more than Amazon thinks a reader should be paying for an e-book; Amazon says the price tag should be $9.99. "A key objective is lower e-book prices," Amazon wrote in a blog post last week. The company made its case for $9.99 e-books, explaining that "For every copy an e-book would sell at $14.99, it would sell 1.74 copies if priced at $9.99." Certainly publishers would like to sell 1.74 times as many books as they do now. And Amazon provides an example that sounds very tempting: "if customers would buy 100,000 copies of a particular e-book at $14.99, then customers would buy 174,000 copies of that same e-book at $9.99. Total revenue at $14.99 would be $1,499,000. Total revenue at $9.99 is $1,738,000." What author doesn't want to make $1.7 million? But before running to cash that hypothetical check, let's look at what Amazon, which declined to respond to our questions about the statement, is and isn't saying."

Pour dynamiser la concurrence dans le commerce électronique, la Commission européenne propose une réglementation qui obligerait les marchands à traiter tous les clients à égalité, quel que soit leur pays. Mais la réglementation contre le blocage ou le filtrage géographique ne s'appliquera pas aux services de contenus protégés par le droit d'auteur.