Thats seems pretty fair. Why should Amazon let them use their site to sell things at a higher price than elsewhere?

If they don't like it they don't have to sell through Amazon.

build your own web store if you want to make your own rules

I don't have a problem with this, and certainly can't imagine why you would. But you've been kinda cranky lately anyway.

If you are a monopoly (or close enough) you are not allowed to crush the competition with anti-competitive measures

@4: this doesn't seem all that anti-competitive to me. booksellers are reaching a broader audience thanks to amazon, and amazon doesn't want them to get free advertising and then say "oh hey we have the book for cheaper over here!" amazon isn't forcing the booksellers to lower their prices further than on their websites, just to match it.

How is it "crushing the competition" or "anti-competitive" to require that people charge the same price they're charging elsewhere?

The EU will be quite happy to enforce a multi-BILLION EU fine on Amazon if need be.

Unlike the US where stuff like this is decided politically, there it's about market dominance by oligopolies and monopolies - and they are quite willing to take action where we find excuses to pretend nothing's wrong.

Will, are you into the drugs already?

The thing is Amazon wants a HUGE cut. It's been a while since I worked for a used book seller, but I remember it being about 15%.

@9 - no, I follow European news. Microsoft thought the same thing Amazon is thinking now - and learned that the EU is NOT the US.

They don't want people using Amazon to search for books, and then buying from the same people, only using their website to buy it for less. Kind of like I do for airfare and hotels.

If a supplier, say a bike manufacturer, did that to its local bike shops, selling online for cheaper than the stores they distribute to, most stores would quit selling their stock. So they don't. Neither should people selling through Amazon.

I am very much against monopolies and large corporations, but this seems legit.I have been buying used books through Biblio. and they probably have similar rules.

@13. Biblio doesn't have any such rule. I list there, also Alibris, and once a long time ago ABEbooks. None of the other used book site do. This is an Amazon thing.

And you should continue to support biblio. It was started by a collective of angry used booksellers over some of the shady stuff ABE pulled on its clients. It's filled with genuine used booksellers, not bots or re-listing companies like at ABE.

Biblio is fair to its clients, demands accurate descriptions for the customers, and takes a modest cut only if a book sells; there's no monthly fee like at other sites.

They are a Craigs List type event away from losing that market.

It isn't the single web storefront they should worry about.
And, unlike the US, some government there may step in an play web host. That is sort of the downside of getting a group together in order to squeeze them, they are all together. Individually they are powerless, as a group they could leave together.

AOL-ian moves provide their own solutions.

Well, the free advertising for ipad stopped. That's nice.

@15

Way to be completely incoherent. A craigs list type event? Like, say, Craigslist? Or ebay?

And then you go into some sort of advocacy for nationalized web commerce or something and between that and Will's post, it really looks like there are some great drugs available today.