France revamps book trade agreement

The 10-year-old agreements governing relations between publishers and booksellers in France have been revamped to reflect important changes in the industry.

The new agreements, signed at the Salon du Livre last month, differ from the original deal in two significant ways, according to Noëlle Rondeau, commercial affairs director of the French publishers association, Syndicat National d'Edition (SNE).

Automated book deliveries have been made more flexible. First, booksellers can now determine for themselves the volume of books they wish to receive in each category. Second, sales of mass market paperbacks will now be included along with those of other editions as part of the formula for determining discounts.

The new accord between the SNE and the French booksellers association, the Syndicat de la Librairie Française (SLF), replaces the Cahart agreements of 1991. It takes account of huge increases in the volume of titles published annually and the impact of e-commerce. "The idea now is to continue discussions to see how we can achieve productivity gains at all stages of the book chain," Mr Rondeau said.

The smaller booksellers association, the Fédération Française des Syndicats de la Librairie (FFSL), refused to sign the pact after the exclusion of what it regarded as important issues. These included the continuing responsibility of booksellers for the full transportation costs of returns to publishers.

The SFL also expressed disappointment at this omission but signed anyway, prefering to continue negotiations with publishers on that and other issues on a case-by-case basis, SFL secretary-general Jean-François Boehm said.