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Originally Posted by jgaiser
Well... Except Amazon wasn't convicted of antitrust. I know that doesn't mean much to you, but juries tend to look at those type of things when they make their judgments.
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Exactly.
One more time: antitrust isn't about market share per se but rather about harm to consumers, direct or (occasionally) indirect.
Amazon made a big public production of resisting the conspiracy so the fact that the conspiracy benefitted them doesn't factor in. They were not part of the illegal coordination but were instead presented with the finished product, the same as BoB and Diesel and the other non-Apple retailers, so legally they are innocent bystanders or even, heh, victims.
A big telling point in these secondary suits is that Apple had access to the conspirator ebooks since day one, whereas everybody else had their contracts terminated and they lost access to those books for weeks or months. Amazon, for example, lost access to new Penguin titles for two whole months so somebody looking to buy one of their titles was forced to go to Apple or do without. Since that was a result of an illegal action, it is likewise illegal. Amazon, instead of being sued, could easily sue. And win.
http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/...14492194024292
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Penguin stopped providing digital editions of new titles to Amazon as of April 1 because Penguin and Amazon haven't yet struck an agreement on a new "agency" pricing model, in which publishers set the retail prices of their e-books. Out of the five major publishers that struck an agency-pricing deal with Apple Inc., Penguin is the only one that hasn't yet reached an agreement with Amazon.
Since Amazon can't sell the digital editions of Penguin's books, it is, in effect, showing its customers that Amazon is still the place to go for discount pricing.
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BTW, retailers harmed by the conspiracy aren't the only ones who can make antitrust claims now; agents and authors can probably file a class action suit for loss of income due to the reduced ebook net the conspirators agreed to. For now this is unlikely, given the BPHs blacklisting habits, but if somebody filed, the suit would easily make it to trial.
Antitrust convictions are nasty.