The proposed fixed price bill raises “serious concerns from the perspective of competition and consumer protection law,” Poland’s competition watchdog, the UOKiK, said in its opinion.

By Jaroslaw Adamowski, Contributor

Poland’s competition watchdog UOKiK has emerged as a leading governmental opponent of a draft bill developed by the Polish Ministry of Culture and National Heritage that aims to introduce a fixed book price system in the country.

The agency’s opinion on the draft law, obtained by local daily Gazeta Wyborcza, indicates that the proposal is facing opposition within some parts of the Polish government which are concerned over its potential impact on competition in the book market. This criticism of the proposed measures could derail years of lobbying by the nation’s publishers and authors, including organizations such as the Polish Chamber of Books (Polska Izba Książki, PIK).

In a bid to promote book readership, Poland’s publishing industry has called on the nation’s authorities to introduce a fixed book price system similar to the measures that already exist in numerous European markets. Last year, the Culture Ministry initiated legislative work on a draft bill which, among its provisions, proposes to: fix a price for books for a 12-month period; cap maximum wholesale discounts at 45% and ban distributors from collecting additional fees from publishers; and impose obligatory sales data reporting by publishers, importers, and retailers to the state-run Statistics Poland agency.

The provisions proposed in the bill “raise serious concerns from the perspective of competition and consumer protection law,” the UOKiK said in its opinion, “and may also prove insufficient or inadequate to achieve the intended results.”

Furthermore, the Polish watchdog said the proposals to fix the price of books for a 12-month period and cap maximum wholesale discounts at 45% could both violate the country’s antitrust regulations. “The setting of fixed or minimum resale prices for goods by entrepreneurs operating in a given market constitutes one of the most serious violations of competition law,” according to the agency. 

Due to the above, such measures should only be “applied in a proportionate manner, only in duly justified circumstances, and exclusively where there is certainty that they will benefit consumers and other market participants,” the UOKiK added.

The ‘Ongoing Oligopolization’ of the book market

Agata Diduszko-Żyglewska, a politician who serves as an advisor to the Polish Culture Minister and chairs a team established to develop new regulations for the book market, has criticized the watchdog’s approach to the legislation in a social media post, accusing the agency of echoing the arguments of the dominant industry players.

“In its opinion, the UOKiK presents numerous theses that are consistent, and sometimes identical, with the opinions submitted to the ministry by several of the largest publishing and distribution entities on the market,” Diduszko-Zyglewska said, “yet are completely inconsistent with the facts resulting from known public studies, reports, and analyses.”

The official also stated that the objective of the regulation “is to halt the ongoing oligopolization of the book market and protect authors, publishers, booksellers, and other businesses operating in the sector from the destructive effects of the law of the strongest.” 

Data released by the country’s National Library (Biblioteka Narodowa) earlier this year in its latest annual book market report shows that book readership in Poland has remained stable, with 41% of respondents 15 and older stating they have read at least one book in the last year, an increase from 37% in 2015, but the same as the previous year’s study. Among respondents aged 15 to 24, 45% declared that they read at least one book last year, outpacing the group of respondents aged 40 to 59 (42%) and also those aged 60 and above (33%).

If the proposed legislation is implemented, Poland could join a growing number of European countries that have implemented fixed book prices. The Monopolies Commission, an independent advisory body to the German government, said in its 2018 report that, at that time, 14 European nations had fixed such prices for retail.