Amazon sued by POD publisher

[Nate the great]

Do you remember the ruckus a couple months back about Amazon threatening small publishers? Well, guess what. It looks like Amazon may have broken the law.

BookLocker.com has filed an antitrust suit against Amazon.com.

Plaintiff BookLocker.com, Inc. (“BookLocker” or “Plaintiff”), on its own behalf and on behalf of the class defined herein, brings this antitrust action to obtain injunctive and monetary relief against Amazon.com, Inc. (“Amazon”) with regard to an anticompetitive tying arrangement that violates section 1 of the Sherman Act, 15 U.S.C. § 1.

The filing can be found here.

[Ervserver]

whoops !

[astra]

Oh well, the giant may fight and make peace treatments, repeat all of this again and again. The most important it doesn't hurt us.

[radleyp]

The case appears to be based on the statements of one Amazon salesperson, who may well have been out of line when he spoke. Without more, it is hard to judge the strength of plaintiff's position, but if that's all there is to it, I think the case is weak.

[Argel]

Originally Posted by radleyp

The case appears to be based on the statements of one Amazon salesperson, who may well have been out of line when he spoke. Without more, it is hard to judge the strength of plaintiff's position, but if that's all there is to it, I think the case is weak.

I think you are misreading the filing. The named individual in the filing is simply the person who wrote to this particular publisher. The point of the class action is that they claim that Amazon has communicated with other POD publishers in the same terms. Such a move has been widely reported and commented upon, so the case is unlikely to rely on the actions of one rogue salesperson.

[Argel]

Originally Posted by astra

The most important it doesn't hurt us.

I wouldn't be so sure. If Amazon win the case, what is to stop them doing the same to small publishers when it comes to ebooks i.e. you can only publish in Mobipocket and on the Kindle if you agree not to publish in other formats.

[HarryT]

Innocent until proven guilty...

[pilotbob]

Originally Posted by Argel

I wouldn't be so sure. If Amazon win the case, what is to stop them doing the same to small publishers when it comes to ebooks i.e. you can only publish in Mobipocket and on the Kindle if you agree not to publish in other formats.

Amazon is doing nothing of the kind. Perhaps you should go reread the original thread on this topic. All they are saying is that POD books bought on Amazon need to be dilevered via the Amazon POD service. Then, they don't even require that if you agree to ship a small amount of stock to them, then they will treat it like any other warehoused book.

Nothing of the above says you can't sell the book somewhere else and use another POD service at all.

BOb

[Argel]

Originally Posted by pilotbob

Perhaps you should go reread the original thread on this topic.
BOb

And perhaps you should reread the court filing. The claim of restraint of trade is not based on the assertion that there are no alternative methods of sale but on the assertion that Amazon has a dominant position in the particular marketplace and that, consequently, the move to exclude POD products of other producers from the Direct Amazon Sales Channel unfairly disadvantages those other producers.

Whether that is a fair claim is for a court to decide.

[b0rsuk]

Monopoly isn't illegal. Abusing monopoly is. The claim seems to be that Amazon abuses its dominant position, much like Microsoft does.

[Smashwords]

Amazon is set to become the world's largest digital publisher. As digital books take off and start accounting for an ever-increasing percentage of book sales, authors may bypass traditional publishers and POD printers altogether and go straight to Amazon and other digital publishers where they get 35% royalty or more.

[astrodad]

Originally Posted by Smashwords

Amazon is set to become the world's largest digital publisher. As digital books take off and start accounting for an ever-increasing percentage of book sales, authors may bypass traditional publishers and POD printers altogether and go straight to Amazon and other digital publishers where they get 35% royalty or more.

At that point, will it be an abuse of their monopoly if they don't allow you to purchase books for other devices, ala the recent EU struggles with Apple's iTunes software and the iPod?

[Nate the great]

Originally Posted by jplumey

At that point, will it be an abuse of their monopoly if they don't allow you to purchase books for other devices, ala the recent EU struggles with Apple's iTunes software and the iPod?

That could be why Amazon and Sony don't sell in the EU.

[Argel]

Originally Posted by Smashwords

Amazon is set to become the world's largest digital publisher. As digital books take off and start accounting for an ever-increasing percentage of book sales, authors may bypass traditional publishers and POD printers altogether and go straight to Amazon and other digital publishers where they get 35% royalty or more.

It's good to know that the world still has room to for the kind of optimism which believes that once Amazon (or anyone else, for that matter) has an effective monopoly it will still be offering a 35% royalty.

[zelda_pinwheel]

Originally Posted by Argel

It's good to know that the world still has room to for the kind of optimism which believes that once Amazon (or anyone else, for that matter) has an effective monopoly it will still be offering a 35% royalty.

heh...