Quote:
Originally Posted by murraypaul
Price fixing. (Retail Price Maintenance for a less pejorative term.)
Currently eBooks from major publishers is a fixed market, as retailers cannot discount.
That is how it used to be in the UK for pBooks: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Net_Book_Agreement
When the NBA fragmented, and was eventually ruled to be illegal, book prices fell, and sales increased.
For pBooks there was potential for negative effects from abolishing the NBA, such as pushing out smaller retailers and the free-rider effect, where someone might browse books in one bookstore but buy in another, cheaper one.
With major publisher eBooks there are no smaller retailers, the market is dominated by a few large players, because those are the only ones the publisher allow to sell their books, and free samples are available, so what are the arguments in favour of fixed pricing?
The current system has retailers effectively acting as agents for the publishers, selling for a fixed price and working on commission, rather than acting as independent operatives. |
Yes what could be the harm in letting a company like Amazon set whatever prices they want on ebooks which they’re more than willing to take a loss on for an indefinite period of time while the few other ebook retailers can’t afford to do this.
I can not think of a single issue that would arise from this sort of arrangement.
By the by it’s not that the publisher refuses to allow more retailers in on selling their books. It’s that other retailers have found its impossible to compete with companies and still make a profit off ebook sales.