Federal Council Wants Price Fixing for Foreign Magazines If Necessary
For years, foreign publishers have been selling their magazines in Switzerland at inflated prices. The Price Commissioner has so far tried in vain to persuade the publishers to lower their prices.
If there is no change in the pricing structure, the Federal Council is now considering legislative measures. As the Federal Council writes in a response to an interpellation published on Thursday, it considers a special law on magazine distribution—for example, one that would allow for the setting of maximum price differences compared to other countries—to be a «last resort.» However, depending on how the situation develops, such a law should be examined in greater depth, it writes.
At present, he sees no way for the federal government to intervene. However, he expressly supports the efforts of Price Commissioner Stefan Meierhans to persuade foreign publishers to lower their prices, he said. This is because the current extent of the price differences is «hardly justifiable.» According to an analysis by the Price Supervisor, there was a 53 percent price difference between Switzerland and Germany in the fall of 2010. The difference was 62 percent compared to France and as high as 110 percent compared to Italy. Due to the sharp depreciation of the euro since then, the differences are even greater today.
The Price Commissioner sees little room to change this. So far, talks with publishers have yielded few results. He is dependent on their goodwill, Meierhans said last February during the presentation of his annual report. He has no tools at his disposal to force them to lower prices. (sda)
