This presentation by Denmark was made during the discussion “Competition Issues in Books and E-Books” held at the 72nd meeting of the OECD Working Party No. 2 on Competition and Regulation on 29 November 2021. More papers and presentations on the topic can be found out at oe.cd/cbeb.

1. The Danish Book
Market
Developments since 2000
Søren Bo Rasmussen – 29 November 2021

2. Agenda
1. Background to the liberalisation
2. The Danish Book Market today
3. Other developments/Some reflections

3. Background

4. The book market until 2000
• The Danish Book Market was until 2000 characterised by
• Bookstore exclusivity (books only sold in bookstores)
• Publisher exclusivity (bookstores only sell books from publishers that
fix prices)
• Fixed book prices on all titles
• DCA: Several analyses during the 80’s and a discussion paper in 1999
• Main worries from publishers and bookstores:
• Small language area  liberalisation detrimental especially for
”narrow” litterature  ”bestsellerism” and less titles published
• Bookshops  no showcase for books plus no guidance to consumers
 Less sales

5. Timeline
2000: Bookstore
exclusivity abolished
2001: Publishers
duty to fix prices
changed to an
option
2006: Price
fixing allowed in
only 10% of new
publications
2011: Price
fixing abolished

6. Developments
since 2001

7. Study of Book Market done by Incentive
(2013)
• Prices down by app. 5 percent 2000-2012 (adjusted for inflation)
• Published first editions up by app. 40 percent 2000-2012
• Annual consumer gain 319 mio. DKK ~ 10 euro per adult

8. 0
2000
4000
6000
8000
10000
12000
2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020
Fiction, published titles
Print Digital
(Statistics Denmark)

9. 0
2000
4000
6000
8000
10000
12000
0
500
1000
1500
2000
2500
3000
3500
4000
4500
5000
2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020
Fiction. Titles published. Print and digital. Originally Danish & translated
Translated Digital Translated Print Danish Digital Danish Print Total
(Statistics Denmark)

10. 0
1000
2000
3000
4000
5000
6000
7000
8000
9000
10000
2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020
Fiction books sold by publishers ( 1000 units)
Print Digital Other Total
(Incentive 2013) &
(Danish Publishers 2012-2020)

11. What happened to price?
• Book price indices are extraordinarily and notoriously uncertain
• Very heterogenous products
• It is difficult to adjust for for instance quality differences.
• The index of Statistics Denmark is based on price developments of a
basket of books (That is the most sold books in the relevant months).
• It is highly volatile from month to month and year to year
• Unfortunately, no really trustworthy source since the study done by
Incentive in 2013

12. 0
20
40
60
80
100
120
140
160
2001M01
2001M06
2001M11
2002M04
2002M09
2003M02
2003M07
2003M12
2004M05
2004M10
2005M03
2005M08
2006M01
2006M06
2006M11
2007M04
2007M09
2008M02
2008M07
2008M12
2009M05
2009M10
2010M03
2010M08
2011M01
2011M06
2011M11
2012M04
2012M09
2013M02
2013M07
2013M12
2014M05
2014M10
2015M03
2015M08
2016M01
2016M06
2016M11
2017M04
2017M09
2018M02
2018M07
Price index for books deflated by CPI (2015=100)
Books Fiction books
(Statistics Denmark)

13. 443
306
0
50
100
150
200
250
300
350
400
450
500
2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020
Dedicated bookstores in Denmark (incl. online)

14. • Almost 25 percent of all Danish adults subscribe to a book
streaming service (e-books and audio books)
• Physical bookstore still the most popular outlet for buying books
• Reading habits quite stable over last 10 years ~ 40 % reading at
least weekly; ~ 15 % never reads
• The Danish Book market generally in good shape – in a period
with increasing competition from other sources (gaming, tv-
streaming services etc.)
Other developments/reflections