High magazine prices: National Council Commission wants to intervene
Magazines from abroad should be sold in Switzerland at lower prices than they are today. That is what the Economic Affairs Committee (WAK) of the National Council wants.
It is submitting a motion to the Council to this end. The motion calls on the Federal Council, together with the price watchdog and the Competition Commission (COMCO), to ensure that there are no "unreasonably high differences" between domestic and foreign magazine prices. The motion was passed by the WAK by 15 votes to 8 with 2 abstentions, as reported by the parliamentary services on Wednesday.
It demands an efficient and unbureaucratic solution and sustainable price reductions. In June, the WAK rejected a parliamentary initiative by Dominique de Buman (CVP/JU) on the same topic. It considered the amendment to the Cartel Act proposed by de Buman to be virtually unenforceable. Prices of foreign magazines would be set by foreign publishers.
De Buman wants to tackle reseller price maintenance by companies and amend the Cartel Act accordingly: Price fixing should be prohibited by the Competition Commission, particularly in the case of abusively high prices, at the request of the price supervisor. (SDA)
