Amazon commissions to school support association prohibited

School support associations are founded for the pursuit of good intentions, namely the pursuit of school interests and promotion of the concerns of students and parents. Whether this is compatible with the position of the support association as a paid affiliate for Amazon was to be decided by the Regional Court (LG) Berlin.

A school support association of a Berlin gymnasium had participated in the so-called affiliate marketing programme of Amazon and received commissions from Amazon. The book order was triggered on the school support association's own website by means of a link to Amazon. The association had called upon its members to order textbooks from Amazon. The German Book Trade Association, the representative body of bookselling enterprises in Germany, filed suit against Amazon for violation of the Price Fixing Act and againstcompetition law provisions.

The court's decision

In itsjudgment of 7.7.2014 - Az. 101 O 55/13 the Regional Court (LG) Berlin ordered Amazon to cease this business practice.

Although the parents paid the book price in full and were not themselves recipients of the Amazon commission, it could not be overlooked that they nevertheless received something "more" from Amazon, namely the promotion of their association. In this way, precisely that competition among booksellers would be created whichstatutory price fixing is intended to prevent.

Furthermore, the court found it established that social pressure was exerted on the decision-making freedom of parents and students in an improper manner. In order not to be exposed to the accusation of lack of solidarity with the school community, parents and students felt compelled to buy the books from Amazon via the school support association.

Conclusion

Even if the commission payments did not directly benefit the parents and students, according to the judgment of the Regional Court (LG) Berlin their freedom of decision was unlawfully influenced. A violation of the book price fixing provision can therefore also exist in the case of the granting of purely non-pecuniary benefits.