From the Settlement analysis:
Quote:
In particular, the proposed settlement states: “These provisions do not dictate a particular business model, such as agency or wholesale, but prohibit Settling Defendants from forbidding a retailer from competing on price and using some of its commission to offer consumers a better value, either through a promotion or a discount.” Discounts, promotions, and some control over retail pricing must all be at least partially under the retailers’ control, even if the agreement is technically an agency-commission model, rather than a wholesale one.
This doesn’t kill the agency model outright, but does modify it well beyond what’s widely recognized today. Suppose a publisher prices a book at $10 list price, and a retailer agrees to a 30 percent commission, or $3 on a full list sale. Under these conditions, those retailers would be permitted to sell the book below list price, presumably taking the discount out of their own $3 commission. The publisher would still net $7, but lose its ability to maintain prices.
The DOJ’s proposed terms expressly permit publishers to set a soft floor on discounts, but not a hard floor. Publishers can enter into one-year agency agreements that stipulate that the retailer can sell individual titles at a loss, but must show a profit overall for all the books it sells from that publisher’s catalogue.
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Note the italic clause: The Fictionwise model is back in play. Yay!
Note the bold clause: Amazon's basket-pricing model is sanctified.
Teeth-gnashers, queue up on the left, please.
