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January 18, 2013; “Un rapport envisage une taxe sur lesdonnées personnelles,” Le Monde, January 18, 2013).The localization of ebooks however confronts much moremundane obstacles as well.Oddities of contratictory tax regimesOne such hurdle —and a really tough one to overcome—is tax: sales tax in the US and value-added tax (VAT) in Europe.The tax issue has already been raised in many Americanstates with regard to a genuinely American brand:Amazon.com (for a detailed account, see this Wikipediapage). In Europe, VAT is redrawing the map of retail, placingthe tiny state of Luxembourg at the center. Luxembourg isthe European headquarters for Amazon, Apple, Kobo, andBarnes & Noble. (Of the major European ebook sellers, onlyGoogle is based elsewhere —in Ireland— for historic reasons.)Having already created an attractive business environment,notably with regard to corporate taxes, Luxembourgdecided in late 2011 to unilaterally lower VAT onebooks to 3% (from 15%), which obviously gives it a significantedge over many other European markets, includingthe UK (where VAT on ebooks is 20%). The resulting taxadvantages for transnationals have triggered heated debates,notably in the UK and France in fall 2012.European trade authorities consider ebooks to be softwarethat is licensed to consumers rather than a product thatcan be purchased, like a print book. As a result, preferentialVAT rates for books (0% in the UK, 7% in Germany) do notapply for a title’s digital edition. Despite such views in theEuropean Commission, France and Spain have recentlypassed national laws (or simply tolerate practices) thatconsider ebooks to be books. (See The Bookseller, December18, 2011.)The complexities of localizationSo paradoxically, the global expansion of ebook platformssuch as Amazon, Apple, Barnes & Noble, Google, and Koboat first resulted in fragmentation within a basically integratedeconomic space such as the EU. Although this fragmentationmay lessen over time, it highlights a deeperproblem that results from contradictory policies betweenmember states of the EU and the European Commission,which is calling on publishers, retail platforms, and nationalgovernments to embrace digital change more boldlyand create a single market for ebooks (see this blog entryby Commissioner Neelie Kroes and launching an ebookround table from June 2012).In Sweden, there is no Amazon.se website, probably becausea local Swedish platform run by a local company,Bonnier, has a strong presence; in addition, the Swedishmarket is too small to fight over, at least for such a globalbehemoth as Amazon. Furthermore, many Swedish consumersare also readers of English-language books and caneasily purchase them online, even from Amazon, if theywish. But how long will such exceptions be sustainable?Legal battles are not limited to Europe, as also in severalemerging economies, policies - or at least local specifics -aim at preserving local markets from bein overrun by globalplayers. In India (one of the most attractive emergingeconomies), Amazon could not get a license for openinga local enterprise; this situation allowed two local Indianequivalents, Flipkart and Indiaplaza, to build relevant marketpositions. Only in August 2012 could Amazon open adedicated site with a huge catalog of more than a milliontitles priced in rupees.The politics of piracyPiracy is obviously another challenge in the new mix ofdigital and global elements.In Germany, and to a certain degree all over Europe, thedebate on piracy has evolved in the first half of 2012 intomainstream headline news. What started as a battle at themargins, with lobbyists for the content industries opposingfree speech advocates and digital nerds, has now beensplit into two strictly opposed camps, with the majority ofauthors ironically siding with the industry and arguing forstrong government action against online sources of illegallydistributed copyrighted content. The “pirates,” on theother side —who have formed political parties across thecontinent to run for election to national parliaments— occasionallyfind common ground with government authoritiesor the European Commission, for instance in derailingthe internationally supported Anti-Counterfeiting TradeAgreement, which was strongly supported by the Germanpublishers’ and booksellers’ association Börsenverein. TheEuropean Parliament voted against the agreement, with478 negative votes, 39 positive, and 165 abstentions (for adetailed account, read this Wikipedia page).Many authors who do not have regular income other thanfrom their writing have good reason to be worried. In Germany,more than 1,500 such authors protested, shouting“We are the creators! Against stealing intellectual property”(“Wir sind die Urheber! Gegen den Diebstahl geistigenEigentums!”), and found many more who followed theircall.8 The Global eBook Report