German booksellers making the rules so their rivals won't

In previous posts, we have talked about the effect of laws and regulations on your competitive position (Google, making the rules so its rivals won't, Unions using CON laws as a barrier to entry, Unions using zoning laws against Wal-Mart, Make the local zoning rules or your rivals will). But the German booksellers put everyone else to shame.

Germany’s book culture is sustained by an age-old practice requiring all bookstores, including German online booksellers, to sell books at fixed prices. Save for old, used or damaged books, discounting in Germany is illegal. All books must cost the same whether they’re sold over the Internet or at Steinmetz, a shop in Offenbach that opened its doors in Goethe’s day, or at a Hugendubel or a Thalia, the two big chains.

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Now this system is under threat from, of all people, the Swiss. Just across the border, the Swiss lately decided to permit the discounting of German books — a move that some in the book trade here fear will eventually force Germany itself to follow suit, transforming a diverse and book-rich culture into an echo of big-chain America.

Hats off to the German booksellers for avoiding ruinous price competition. They even have the NY Times drinking their Koolaid.

But [preventing discounting] has also — American consumers should take note — caused book prices to drop. Last year, on average, book prices fell 0.5 percent.

Goebbels must be smiling.