Amazon.com (AMZN) No Longer Discounts Books in France

Amazon.com (Nasdaq: AMZN) has cut all book discounts in France, but lowered shipping costs, following implementation of a new law aimed at protecting local booksellers from what has been deemed as unfair competition from the e-commerce giant.

Under the new law, online booksellers won't be able to apply government-regulated discounts to cover prices of books, the WSJ noted today. The discount was last at 5 percent.

Shipping can also not be free, so Amazon is charging a token penny.

News comes as Amazon has been in some very public incidents recently. The European Union is looking into the company's tax arrangements in Luxembourg and the company has also been in a dispute with Lagardère SCA's Hachette Book Group over e-book pricing.

Shares of Amazon are down 0.7 percent.

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