Quote:
Originally Posted by ficbot
Fictionwise is also more expensive than Kobo. But Kindle is cheaper than both, and Sony seems to be matching the Kindle prices. So clearly, it is not 'everyone uses the same price' as they said it would be.
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It's possible that only Apple and Amazon had the clout to insist on contracts that said "nobody can have lower prices than ours." Without that, the publishers are free to insist on higher prices at some stores than others.
I don't think that runs into any legal problems; with retail it wouldn't, but with an agency setup, it's entirely unclear if it runs into weird consumer-protection pricing laws. (I still think the "nobody sells it lower than us" phrasing needs to be run past lawyers who understand pricefixing legalities; it certainly seems like either publishers or retailers are trying to establish an industry-wide minimum price.)