Quote:
Originally Posted by darryl
I agree with much of what you say here, so will focus on where we disagree. If book publishers were aiming at setting up Apple as competition for Amazon, they certainly have a funny idea of competition. Certainly there would be no price competition at a retail level nor of course at a non-existent wholesale level. Even competition on other things than price would be so limited as to be virtually irrelevant. What form do you think this competition would have taken? What benefits would it have had for the public?
I also find it surprising that you look at successful litigation by the Dept of Justice in a very straight forward price fixing cartel case, and say that Amazon had to use "their contacts in the US government" to have its valid and obvious complaint investigated. I'm sure both Apple and Amazon, like most large corporates, have their contacts in the US government, but I am not aware of any evidence that Amazon or any officials behaved improperly. Nor why Amazon's mysterious contacts were so much more effective than Apple's in this instance. I would be interested in the basis of this particular assertion. Likewise for the assertion that the publishers got their agency model pricing from Amazon?
I totally agree with you so far as the statements in your last paragraph are concerned.
|
You do know that the US government's case against Apple and the publishers was based on work done by Amazon lawyers don't you? That came out about a year after Cote's ruling.
https://www.wsj.com/articles/amazon-...ent-1410217281
So yes, it was very much a case using Amazon's contacts with the US government. Bezos has been much more heavily involved with government lobbying that Jobs was. I suspect it's one of the major driving forces behind him buying the Washington Post rather than say a newspaper on the West Coast where Amazon is based.
You are not aware that the contracts with amazon for the big 5 includes agency pricing? It's been that way since 2014/2015 when first Hachette and then the other 4 renegotiated the deals under court order.
http://www.slate.com/blogs/moneybox/...ublishing.html
As is pointed out in a number of more recent articles, it's a big winner for Amazon since they don't have to worry about cutting profit margins to get market share, they get a steady 30%.