France was considering a minimum delivery charge for books in October 2021. Reuters reported that Amazon could ship books for a cent while small shops often charged several euros. French law already constrained discounts on new books.
I like independent bookstores, but I don’t think that alone settles the policy. A delivery minimum makes Amazon’s scale less potent; it also asks readers to pay more for the same book. The honest argument for the rule is that France values a dispersed network of shops enough to make that trade. Calling the rule simply pro-consumer or anti-Amazon hides who pays for it.