Google, Amazon, and Apple are among the least transparent multinationals in the world, worse than Russian state-owned energy companies Gazprom, and Rosneft, according to a report published today (5 November) by anti-corruption campaigners.

The US tech giants scored less than three out of a possible ten in the Transparency International ranking, which rates the 124 firms on the Forbes list of the world’s largest publicly traded companies.

Transparency International, an influential, global civil society organisation, said 90 of the companies on the list do not disclose taxes paid in foreign countries. 54 of the multinationals, together worth more than US$14 trillion (about €11.2 trillion), give no information on their revenues in other countries. The information is needed, especially in developing countries, to ensure companies are paying the taxes they should, where they should.

Multinationals are marked on their reporting of overseas financial information, data about their subsidiaries and holdings, and disclosure of their anti-corruption measures. The final score is an average of the three factors taken into account.

Seven of the best performing multinationals are from Europe. Italian oil and gas company Eni came top with 7.3, followed by the UK’s Vodafone (6.7). The worst are from China, with the Bank of China propping up the list with a single point.

IBM got 2.9, with Apple taking 2.7, the same as Visa, Petrochina and US banking and financial services corporation Citigroup.

Google scooped just 2.2 out of ten. But Amazon had with just 2 points, putting it on a par with the communist-owned Industrial and Commercial Bank of China and China Shenhua Energy Company.

That was still better than the lowest ranked US multinational, Berkshire Hathaway. The holding company,
whose CEO and largest shareholder is Warren Buffett, scored just 1.6 points.

Russian oil behemoth Rosneft nabbed a comparatively respectable 4.2, while Gazprom got 3.5, the same
score as Microsoft.

In the chart below, showing the 13 worst performers, the first coloured column represents anti-corruption programmes, the second organisational transparency and the third country-by-country reporting.

Read the report on Euractiv here

The European and International Booksellers Federation held its statutory General Assembly at the Frankfurt Book Fair today.

As announced in London in April  and further to the resignation  of John Mc Namee as President, the European and International Booksellers Federation held elections and elected Dr. Kyra Dreher, Managing Director of the Retail Booksellers Committee, Boersenverein des Deutschen Buchhandels (DE), Fabian Paagman, CEO of boekhandel Paagman in the Hague (NL) and Jean-Luc Treutenaere, President of the SDLC – Syndicat des distributeurs de produits culturels and Director of External Affairs at Cultura (F)  as  Co-Presidents of the EIBF.

Said Kyra Dreher:  “I am confident that our triumvirate is a winning formula: at a time where the book industry is undergoing spectacular changes, we need all energies and skills available for looking after booksellers’ interests. I am really thrilled to work with Fabian and Jean-Luc as two professional and successful booksellers.”

Fabian Paagman declared “With Kyra and Jean-Luc, we represent three strong book markets in Europe.  This is very positive for the EIBF to have access to such rich know-how coming from different book markets and varied sales channels.”

Jean-Luc Treutenaere added: “I am convinced that the diversity of our backgrounds and the richness of our respective experiences is an asset for EIBF. I feel strongly committed to the task I am undertaking with Kyra and Fabian and I have no doubt we will be a dream team.”

Oren Teicher, CEO of the American Booksellers Association, remains Vice-President in charge of International Affairs.

Matthieu  de Montchalin, owner of “L’armitière” in Rouen (F) and President of the French Booksellers Association (SLF) as well as Jane Streeter, owner of The Book Case,  Lowdham, UK,  and former President of the BA U.K & Ireland, have been elected Members of  the Executive Committee”

For further information, please contact EIBF Director Fran Dubruille on +32 475 40 32 34

Article by Loek Essers

Booksellers have met with European Commission officials to discuss their concerns that Amazon holds a monopoly in the online book market.

The booksellers urged the Commission to make sure that consumers will have a rich and diversified online book offering, said Françoise Dubruille, director of the European and International Booksellers Federation (EIBF), the umbrella organization for the EU’s national booksellers associations. The group met this week with Despina Spanou, director for consumer policy at the European Commission, she said.

“In the end, if you only have one big retailer on the market like Amazon, this retailer will impose its bargaining, its rebate and its commercial conditions on the publishers. And if publishers have limited choice in retail channels they will be squeezed by that giant retailer,” Dubruille said.

If that happens, publishers will have less money to invest in new books, which would damage cultural diversity, she said.

Consumer organizations don’t seem to be aware of this issue, so “it would be a good idea” if the Commission pushed the BEUC, which advocates for European consumers, to start an inquiry among its members to raise awareness, Dubruille said.

A Commission spokesman said the discussion this week covered consumer policy issues.

The meeting came in the wake of mounting pressure on authorities in the EU and U.S. to curb what booksellers claim is Amazon’s abuse of its market power.

Authors in the U.S. met with Justice Department officials in early August, seeking a government investigation into Amazon’s ebook business practices, The Wall Street Journal reported Wednesday.

In June, the German Publishers and Booksellers Association filed an official complaint against Amazon with the Bundeskartellamt, Germany’s federal antitrust authority.

The association accused the company of “extortive activities against publishers” because Amazon has delayed deliveries of printed books from a leading German publishing group in order to force higher discounts for the sale of ebooks. This would give Amazon clear advantages over other purchasers of electronic books and violate antitrust laws, according to the German publishers.

The German antitrust authority shared the complaint with the European Commission’s Competition branch. However, no official procedure has started.

“We are trying to understand the issues involved,” said a spokesman for that branch. “We work closely with national competition authorities, including the Bundeskartellamt, on antitrust matters.”

Dubruille said that even though the issue was flagged with the competition authority, it is important to also discuss it with Commission officials who oversee consumer issues.

Similar issues with Amazon were also raised in the U.K., where booksellers asked the competition authority last month to start a market inquiry into Amazon’s dominance, the Financial Times reported. According to the publishers, the “book retail market in the U.K. suffers from a chronic and debilitating imbalance for authors, publishers and booksellers.”

Antitrust complaints from other national bookseller associations might follow, too. “Other national associations are probably reflecting at the moment if they want to do the same [as the Germans] or not,” said Dubruille, though she could not say which country would likely be next.

Source: www.pcworld.com

Global Fixed Book Price Report
23rd May 2014
INTRODUCTION
Fixed book price (FBP) systems have existed for more than 150 years. Most countries with a significant book industry have, at one time or other, introduced a mechanism to fix the price at which books are sold to the public. FBP is viewed by many nations (eg France, Germany) as an important, flexible and effective policy tool in maintaining a sustainable book industry. Elsewhere, for example among Anglo-Saxon and Nordic nations, the very notion of price fixing is considered irrational and unproductive, contradicting market forces and competition legislation.
Today, with the book supply chain under pressure from a number of forces, notably the rise of online retail, there is renewed debate about the merits of fixed book price. IPA neither advocates for or against fixed book price; we are however interested in the effect FBP produces within countries that adopt it.
This report contains details of the FBP schemes currently in operation. It includes a history of the development of FBP, an overview of the arguments commonly presented for and against FBP and information about recent FBP developments around the world. We hope you find it useful.

Full report available in attachement.

The book sector welcomes more dialoguing on remote access to e-books through libraries (e-lending)

Meeting in London on Friday 16th May at the occasion of the European Writers Council (EWC) and Federation of European Publishers (FEP) third seminar on the above mentioned topic, the representatives of authors, publishers, booksellers and libraries have welcomed more dialoguing in order to recommend sustainable solutions. The previous seminars were held in Helsinki and Paris in 2013.

Today, they heard from the current practices in the UK, Sweden, Belgium (Flanders), Switzerland, the Netherlands, France, Italy, Finland and Norway. All these offers to libraries are adapted and adapting to the national (or regional) context and are regularly reviewed to provide a balanced environment.

The e-book market is developing at different speeds in Europe and many pilots are taking place in various countries to see how e-lending works and whether and how it affects sales through bookshops proposing an offer online.

In the best case scenario, libraries’ acquisitions are accounting for 4 % of the turnover of the sector while individual sales through retailers represent 96 %. The book sector is an eco-system. An eco-system is a chain of interdependences where all members are mutually dependent on the others. In order to allow European citizens to keep on enjoying access to a great variety of books of all styles, whether lending or buying print or e-books, it is crucial that all the members of that eco-system: authors, publishers, booksellers and librarians are able to fulfil their roles, for the benefit of all citizens.

Today, EWC, FEP and the European Booksellers Federation (EBF) agreed to pursue the dialogue with libraries with the objective to recommend sustainable solutions.

The fourth meeting of this series of seminars will take place in Brussels in December 2014.

A new international treaty introducing copyright exceptions for libraries and archives would severely damage European interests.

Creative sector organisations have united to warn the European Commission of the dangers of a proposed World Intellectual Property Organization treaty on copyright limitations and exceptions. At last week’s meeting of WIPO’s Standing Committee on Copyright and Related Rights (SCCR), there were calls for an international treaty on copyright exceptions for libraries and archives.

The International Publishers Association, the Federation of European Publishers, the European Writers Council, for the book sector and other creative sector organisations have written to European Commission President, José Barroso, alerting him that any new legal instrument would severely prejudice Europe’s creative industries and wider interests.

The signatories point out that the SCCR’s future direction will have far-reaching implications for copyright. “WIPO’s approach should be to strive for an international copyright framework which facilitates the exchange
of experiences as well as technical cooperation and assistance, maintaining an appropriate balance between exceptions and corresponding exclusive rights.”

“We believe that the European Union and its Member States should have a fair and clear approach on this matter of critical importance to the creative sector.”

Source: www.internationalpublishers.org