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Originally Posted by tompe
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Amazon's clause was different (I was involved in contract negotiations and so had a copy in hand). Amazon's clause was that the publisher couldn't set a retail price for establishing the wholesale price lower than the retail price that Amazon was being given. IOW, if Hachette sold a book to Amazon for $20, it couldn't sell it to Sony for $19 nor could it give Amazon a 40% discount and Sony a 50% discount to set the wholesale price. However, Amazon could set the final retail price at whatever it wanted as could Sony so it was still possible for Sony to sell the book for less than Amazon.
This is different than setting of the retail price under the Apple contract, at least as I understand it.
Under the Apple contract, Hachette could sell the book to the consumer for whatever price it wants but that price cannot be higher than the price Hachette sets for the same book at Amazon -- it could, however, be less than the price it sells the book for at Amazon.