In time for Hebrew Book Week, Israel’s Culture Minister Miri Regev has decided not to renew the Books and Authors Law, which had regulated book prices and limited discounting since 2014. An advisory committee had concluded that the law drove up book prices and reducing competition. Separately, Germany’s independent Monopolies Commission — an advisory committee with no legislative authority –decided at its “own discretion” to prepare and submit a report to the government recommending “abolishing the statutory rules on fixed book prices.” They advise that a 2016 European Court of Justice ruling blocking fixed prices in Germany for medicinal products establishes […]
