Quote:
Originally Posted by HarryT
I know at one time the publishers tried to get around this by claiming that Amazon were acting as their agent, rather than as a retailer (an agent DOESN'T have the right to change the price), but wasn't this ruled to be invalid as a part of the "agency pricing" court case?
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No, it wasn't ruled invalid and beginning this fall, each of the publishers who settled with the Department of Justice can impose agency pricing. It was the "collusion" to impose agency pricing that was invalid, not the agency pricing itself.
I suspect that this is Amazon's opening gambit in hopes of destroying the phoenixing of agency pricing before the fire starts. A worthwhile blog article to read is Mark Coker's at Smashwords:
Amazon's Hachette Dispute Foreshadows What's Next for Indie Authors.
Anyway, as long as each publisher imposes agency pricing without "colluding", it can be imposed again. Smashwords uses agency pricing.