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Originally Posted by leebase
Amazon putting all the best sellers on sale for $9.99 was harming the business the publishers had built.
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Competition does tend to do that.
Quote:
Originally Posted by leebase
Sell the every expensive Kindle by losing money on those ebooks...and by the time the price was able to come down on the ebook readers, Amazon owned the market.
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I highly recommend you actually read both the original court decision and the appeal. Here is the relevant quote from the Appeal decision:
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Where Amazon departed from the publishers' traditional business model was in the sale of new releases and New York Times bestsellers. Rather than selling more expensive versions of these books upon initial release (as publishers encouraged by producing hardcover books before paperback copies), Amazon set the Kindle price at one, stable figure — $9.99. At this price, Amazon was selling "certain" new releases and bestsellers at a price that "roughly matched," or was slightly lower than, the wholesale price it paid to the publishers. Apple, 952 F.Supp.2d at 649. David Naggar, a Vice President in charge of Amazon's Kindle content, described this as a "classic loss-leading strategy" designed to encourage consumers to adopt the Kindle by discounting new releases and New York Times bestsellers and selling other ebooks without the discount. J.A. 1485. The district court also referred to this as a "loss leader[]" strategy, Apple, 952 F.Supp.2d at 650, 657, 708, and explained that Amazon "believed [the $9.99] pricing would have long-term benefits for its consumers," id. at 649. Contrary to the dissent's portrayal of the opinion, the district court did not find that Amazon used the $9.99 price point to "assure[] its domination" in the ebook market, or that its pricing strategy acted as a "barrier to entry" for other retailers. Dissenting Op. at 6-7. Indeed, in November 2009 — just a few months before Apple's launch of the iBookstore — Barnes & Noble entered the ebook retail market by launching the Nook, Apple, 952 F.Supp.2d at 649 n. 6, and as early as 2007 Google Inc. ("Google") had been planning to enter the market using a wholesale model, id. at 686.
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