Quote:
Originally Posted by Andrew H.
Those are two different and unrelated points. Most of the big publishers went to the agency model. Where is the evidence that they have unlawfully fixed prices?
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Not at all unrelated. As I remember it, Amazon was happy setting its own prices in order to further its business objectives. The shared monopoly acted as one to force Amazon to conform to its business model, at which point Amazon lost all control of pricing.
I think it's pretty clear to everyone, that since the prices of books from all of the publishers instantly shot up by 30% under the "Agency Model" that the competitive element had been effectively removed from the pricing. It's also clear, over the fullness of time, that this has been detrimental to the consumer, since the prices haven't dropped and there are no sales and so, and so on.
The bit about "unlawfully" fixing prices is your own issue to deal with. I never commented on the lawfulness of the act. However, since you brought it up Andrew, I guess it's fair to assume that you found this action, if not technically illegal, at least immoral.