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At the request of the Ministry of Education, Culture and Science, Dialogic and APE have evaluated the Fixed Book Price Act (Wet op de vbp) for the period 2009 - 2012. Article 30 of this law stipulates that the Minister of Education, Culture and Science periodically reports to the Dutch House of Representatives on the effectiveness and impacts of the law in practice. The evaluation focuses on four sub-studies, namely:
- Analysis of the position of academic books during 2009-2012.
- Measurement and explanation of developments in the diversity of titles offered and the broad availability of books during 2009 – 2012.
- Analysis of the consequences of digitalization for the scope of the law.
- Evaluation of the functionality of the fixed price in light of the current (and expected future) market situation of physical bookstores compared to the effectiveness and efficiency of any potential alternatives to this instrument.
Sub-studies 3 and 4 represent an extension compared to the previous evaluation conducted by APE a few years ago. The evaluation report is structured according to these sub-studies, with the first two sub-studies resulting in various figures about bookstores and book sales, while the latter two sub-studies led to more qualitative descriptions of the impact of digitalization (quantified where possible) and a comparison of the 'fixed book price' instrument with other alternatives. The report specifically addresses the possibility of separating academic books as a separate category from other books.
In the discussion on the future of the law, we recommend considering the following aspects:
- The sustainability of the current interpretation of 'broad availability' (dense network of geographically spread bookstores) in the context of online sales and the extent to which online bookstores and physical bookstores are substitutes or complement each other.
- The effectiveness of the Fixed Book Price Act for different categories of books, for example, more relevance for literary-cultural titles and less relevance for academic titles.
- With any potential amendment to the law, the question must be raised regarding its impact on (1) the position of literary-cultural titles as cultural goods, and (2) the importance of physical bookstores as one of the channels through which (literary) books are distributed.
- The impact of any amendment to the law on market power of different providers. The potential abolishment of the law will result in price competition that will further undermine the position of physical bookstores in favour of major online and non-bookstore providers.
- The impact of any amendments to the law on the unique collective distribution infrastructure in the Netherlands which adds value to both physical and online bookstores. Any changes or abolishment could jeopardize this infrastructure and have a negative effect on book availability for consumers.
- An amendment to the Fixed Book Price Act provides an opportunity to inform a wider audience about this law.
Currently, the report is with the Council for Culture, who will provide advice on this evaluation. Afterwards, the Minister of Education, Culture and Science will present the report to the Dutch House of Representatives.
Dialogic, April 2014