The remaining parallel import restrictions on books are under threat as the Competition Policy Review weighs up how technology and buying over the internet make it easy to circumvent restrictions.
Book printers are facing another round of questions as to the viability of Australia’s parallel import regulations (PIRs) as Ian Harper delivers a draft report that encourages doing away with most restrictions to competition. Submissions to the Competition Policy Review from the Australian National Retailers Association highlight how the advances in technology, especially the rise of Amazon and such international book warehouses as Fishpond, make it difficult for local bookstores to compete. It argues the increased use of technology and shifting book purchase practises mean that international competitors easily circumvent the parallel import restriction.
In its submission to the Review, Printing Industries argues that the 2012 Book Industry Strategy Group dealt with this problem. That Group produced a report on how digital technologies are changing the way books, both printed and digital, are produced and delivered. It recommended a reduction of the PIRs from 30/90 days to 14/14 days. (Previously Australian territorial rights holder had to release a book in Australia within 30 days of its publication elsewhere in the world, and ensure resupply within 90 days.)
This voluntary arrangement has been in place for just over 12 months and Printing Industries believes it should be given additional time before any consideration is given to amending the current parallel importing provisions in the Copyright Law.
It said the implementation of this code and a range of other recommendations have led to significant investment in new printing equipment based on the assumption that the existing regulatory arrangements will be maintained for a reasonable period.
According to the ANRA e-books are largely imported from overseas distributors such as Amazon and not covered by the restriction. Online stores that can directly ship books from overseas to customers, can circumvent the restrictions because the sale occurs overseas and not in Australian, even though the customer is located here.
The draft report noted there is some support in submissions for moving to the New Zealand position where all restrictions on parallel import caused by statute have been abolished. Parallel importation restrictions, where publishers have a window to print locally before facing international competition, are described as ‘effectively an anachronism of a pre-digital age.’