Authority

Publishing: Antitrust, investigation into school books, market worth 1 billion

Authority spotlight on competition dynamics and critical aspects such as prices, distribution methods, frequent new editions of texts

11 September 2024

3' min read

Key points

Turnover
Sector enterprises
Focus also on second-hand products
The controversy at the start of the school year

3' min read

The Antitrust Authority is putting its lens on school books, a market worth around one billion on which the Authority intends to investigate the competitive dynamics and critical aspects such as prices, distribution methods, and frequent new editions of texts. The Competition and Market Authority has launched a fact-finding investigation into the school publishing markets in Italy, which also includes publications and aids intended for primary and secondary school students and teachers.

Turnover

Scholastic publishing is worth about EUR 1 billion per year and is characterised by a particular seasonality linked to the period of book procurement for consumers, i.e. about 7 million students and their families, and the professional involvement of almost one million teachers. The special cultural value of the book good has also led to the adoption of special regulations, which profoundly affect the sector.

The survey "intends to investigate the competitive dynamics of the markets concerned and a number of critical issues that are recurrently under public consideration, such as price trends, frequent changes in editions, difficulties in supply and distribution methods, and possible rigidities in the way schools are adopted, also considering the technological innovations in the sector, especially with regard to the combination of paper-digital formats and the circulation of property rights of digital editions".

In parallel, the Authority launched a public consultation on the subject, asking all stakeholders to send in contributions within 30 days.

Enterprises in the sector

From an entrepreneurial point of view, the Authority's decision states that school publishing is characterised by a strong and growing degree of concentration, with the presence of a number of large groups such as Mondadori, Zanichelli, Sanoma and La Scuola, which own large portfolios of brands, present both in the primary school book segment and in the first and second grade secondary school segment. The Authority emphasises that the supply chain of school books is comparable to that of prescription medicines in that those who choose the books (i.e. teachers) do not bear the costs and those who pay for them (families and public authorities) are not the users. Another peculiarity is represented by the intermediation of the demand with the promotion of books to be adopted by publishing agents, often organised in the form of independent agencies but strongly conditioned by their relations with publishers, and with the adoption being the prerogative of the teaching board of each school: the latter does this by deciding by an absolute majority in a binding manner for the entire duration of the educational cycle of the book, effectively limiting the choice of individual teachers.

"Publishers know well in advance the extent of the demand to be met: however, delays in the supply of textbooks in time for the start of the school year appear to be recurring," the Antitrust Authority writes.

Focus also on used cars

The survey will also cover the secondary markets for paper editions and the critical issues related to the succession of renewed editions of the same title "which makes the resale of used books more difficult". Alternative ways of using textbooks aimed at containing costs for consumers (e.g. rental, loan for use) have "so far not found substantial development in the national context". E-books and the downloading of copies on the Internet are other aspects that the Authority intends to investigate further in the investigation that will close on 10 September 2025.

The controversy at the start of the school year

The announcement by the Antitrust Authority arrives to coincide with the start of the school year in several Italian regions. And it follows by a few weeks the controversies and exchanges of accusations that, punctual as every September, there have been between consumer associations and booksellers. Both on the cost of books and on that of the entire school kit.

In recent weeks, Codacons has lined up the possible outlay for exercise books, backpacks, diaries, stationery, drawing materials, books and dictionaries. Quantifying it at a maximum of EUR 1,300 per student. An exercise that also involved Federconsumatori, which spoke of an expenditure per pupil, between school supplies and texts, of 1,200 euro. With an average growth of +6.6% over 2023 and peaks of +18% for school textbooks. The alarm was raised by the Lazio Students' Network, which, looking even further back, spoke of +23.4% over the last four years. Numbers contested by booksellers. Sil Confesercenti specified that increases on textbooks would not exceed 3%, those on stationery 4-5%.

In turn, Ali Confcommercio has brought back to the centre of the debate a topic that was already addressed a year ago at this time: the introduction of an ad hoc deduction for school books. At the time, that idea remained on paper. And, this time too, the reorganisation scenario of tax expenditure connected to the Irpef reform does not bode well this time either.