NMa carries out market scan into textbook market

The Netherlands Competition Authority (NMa) in the next few months will be carrying out a market scan into the Dutch market for secondary-education textbooks. The market scan will reveal how well the market is functioning right now.

The upcoming market scan is a follow-up to the so-called textbook scan, carried out in 2006. The textbook market has seen some drastic changes in the last few years, among which is the Dutch act on free textbooks which came into effect in 2008. This act was passed in part because of the fact, which the 2006 scan revealed, that the textbook market lacked price competition due to a lack of price incentives. Schools drew up the textbook lists, and parents paid for the books. Schools and teachers were not stimulated to also include, to a considerable degree, price when choosing what teaching materials to get. The total turnover of the secondary-education textbook market in 2009 was EUR 285 million.

In the next few months, the NMa will be interviewing several organizations in the industry, including secondary schools. By doing so, the NMa wants to have as complete a picture as possible of how the market is currently working, and is thus inviting parties to share with the NMa information on market developments. Publishers, distributors and schools with information can contact the NMa by sending an email, with reference to 'schoolboekenscan 2010'.

The NMa is expecting to have the market scan results in the first quarter of 2011.