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Originally Posted by fjtorres
Nope.
Conspiring to fix prices is equally illegal on both sides of the pond.
Apple and friends got called on the carpet by the EU. They got off with a wrist slap but they were at risk for deeper penalties until they played the "Amazon is evil" card.
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Some EU countries legally allow price competition between booksellers, and some don't. I presume that if you discuss obeying French law in France, that's fine, but if you discuss applying French principles to your British book business, that's not.
It's not that Amazon is evil. But if Amazon gets such a big market share that suppliers can't plausibly stop doing business with them, and Amazon doesn't use that market power to squeeze said suppliers, there eventually will be a stockholder revolt. Jeff Bezos probably can withstand that, but Amazon will eventually come under great pressure to monetize its market power.
Quote:
Originally Posted by fjtorres
One more time: the crime was *conspiring to raise prices*, not the agency model.
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Of course, you are right about the conspiracy point, even though I don't exactly think a civil antitrust violation is a crime.
When the antitrust restrictions expire, one publisher can announce they will insist on agency. Then the others can do the same, or not, their choice. It's not that different than if the same offer and response was made over a lunch meeting, but only the latter is illegal. I did oversimplify.