63 : The Global eBook Market: Current Conditions & Future Projections legislation needs to be adapted to requirements of the digital age, other professional organizations of the industry, notably in France, strictly oppose such action, in the expectation of amendents watering down current policies and legislation. The complex debate revolves around a number of cases and issues, including the right of producing a copy of a copyrighted work for private usage (“Privatkopie”) in Germany, to introducing US concepts such as “fair use” to European law, or pursuing consumers infringing copy- right by banning them from using the Internet (accord- ing to Hadopi law in France). Also, the huge discrepancy of VAT applied on printed or digital books (in the extreme case of the UK being zero percent on print against 20 percent on digital) is a terrain of harsh controversy. While some articulate the concern that too much lobbying for lowering VAT on ebooks to print levels may blow up preferential rates for books altogether, others argue in extending the prefer- ential regime to a reduced VAT rate on all cultural spending. The approach by the European Commission is far from univocal at this point. On the one hand, the Commission has started an investigation, notably with French publishers, on pricing agreements that may With the advent of ebooks, and the far broader shift from brick-and-mortar retail to online platforms, obvi- ously more editions (and prices) for a titles are presented to the consumer, and making readers aware of the di er- ences. It is plausible to anticipate that this will, rather sooner than later, lead to competition over pricing, disregarding national policies of xed prices. English- language ebooks of popular titles originally written in English, and easily purchased as ebooks at their original, lower price, will have a signi cant impact on cumsumer price sensitivity. The dynamics of change and pressure on average pricing will further increase, as printed books are cur- rently migrating beyond the traditional book trade to general retail channels, for example, those rooted in electronics and entertainment, like Redcoon, and as nontraditional business models arise—like subscription models or Amazon’s alleged rental model (which was instantly critically reviewed by Börsenverein for Germany). Copyright Legislation The debate on copyright has become a mainstream controversy in Europe, and most strongly so in Germany, in the rst half of 2012. While the German trade associa- tion Börsenverein declared in June 2012 that copyright UK Italy US Netherlands Germany France Sweden Spain Avg. top 10 ction print (discounted) €12.26 €12.52 €13.28 €15.98 €17.77 €18.53 €19.57 €20.62 Avg. top 10 ction ebooks €9.24 €7.66 €10.27 €12.59 €14.79 €13.70 €15.24 €11.18 Discount from print 25% 39% 23% 21% 17% 26% 22% 46% Avg. discounted price print (2011) €10.68 €11.33 €16.35 €19.93 Discount from print (2011) 9% 11% 23% 21% Table: Price (and discount) comparison for print and Kindle editions of top 10 ction charts in early September 2012, with values for the respective top 10 charts in some markets in September 2011.