B&N didn't stop Fictionwise from using micropay rebates or offering discount coupon sales; agency did. B&N didn't buy Diesel or BoB. Yet Agency crippled and eventually killed them, too.
Fixed pricing may "protect" outlets in countries where price fixing is mandated but in the US the culture is different: discounting is *expected* and is not considered "going evil". if price fixing is so good for B&M retailers, why don't the multinationals apply Agency to pbooks to reduce the power of Costco, Walmart, and B&N so the tiny mom and pop stores can survive 500 years?
Obviously because they *know* the public won't go along with the higher, no discount prices.
And they are now belatedly discovering that big chunks of the market aren't going along with the new rules on ebooks. Different continent, different culture.
What works in one land does not necessarily work everywhere.
What is necessary in one place, price fixing, can easily be seen as unnecessary and evil in an entirely different business environment. Which is why in business it is up to consumers to decide what *they* think is "evil". ("Evil" is in the eye of the consumer, not competitors, or pundits, or moralists.) Amazon--because it puts consumers above all else--is Golden and no amount of rants and one-sided exposes by big media has touched them.
The customer sees no evil in that company.
