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> Apparently, France also fixes the price of all books to keep it 'fair' for small bookstores.

So does Germany. As well as many other countries: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fixed_book_price_agreement

Is this circumventable by shipping form another EU country? Amazon UK ships for free to most of Europe and is AFAIK not bound by these laws, so this is a really strange situation.

Amazon.co.uk seems to charge >5 GBP for shipments to the rest of Europe: http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/help/customer/display.html?nodeId...

But http://www.bookdepository.co.uk/ (acquired by Amazon in 2011) offer free shipping worldwide

It is only interesting if you want to buy english books most of the time. The prices of books are not excessive in France despite this law.

The rule is not active yet and has not many chances to be effective.