PARIS, June 4 (UPI) -- France's culture minister says online retailer Amazon is a "destroyer of bookshops," accusing it of undercutting traditional sellers for a "quasi-monopoly."
Aurelie Filippetti, in another in an ongoing series of Socialist government attacks on foreign firms, said she was mulling a ban on free postage offers and a current system allowing a 5 percent discount on books, The Daily Telegraph reported Tuesday.
"Today, everyone has had enough of Amazon which, through dumping practices, smashes prices to penetrate markets only to then raise prices again once they are in a situation of quasi-monopoly," she said.
"The book and reading sector is facing competition from certain sites using every possible means to enter the French and European book market ... it is destroying bookshops."
Her attack on Amazon coincided with her announcement of an $11.7 million agreement with French publishers to support independent booksellers.
Part of that funding would be earmarked for "modernizing" traditional bookshops and fostering "online sales" of independent stores, she said.
Successive French governments have mandated fiercely protectionist efforts against Internet companies they consider a threat to French cultural and economic interests.
