Kobo's rationale for demanding Agency be restored in Canada is that their contracts guaranteeing 30% margins go away.
http://www.mondaq.com/canada/x/31079...enge+explained
A bit more interesting:
Quote:
Kobo says that unlike in the US, the shift to agency in Canada was not driven by a conspiracy among publishers, but rather, by Kobo itself in its negotiations with publishers. Kobo's Chief Content Officer, Michael Tamblin, says that the shift to agency in Canada did not happen simultaneously with Apple's entry, but afterwards. He says that Kobo had to press the publishers to move to agency.
Indigo Books & Music Inc. has applied for leave to intervene in support of Kobo. Indigo's CEO Heather Reisman says, in an affidavit, that the settlement threatens to give Amazon a monopoly or near monopoly over the sale of ebooks in Canada.
The Competition Bureau, in its response, contends that Kobo is simply trying to protect the guaranteed 30% margin it has under its existing contracts, and keep prices from falling.
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Bold mine.
Uh, itsy-bitsy problem: there is documentary evidence from the US trial (page 12 of the ruling, if memory serves) that the publishers conspired horizontally in Canada, too. The evidence shows they wanted a Canadian retailer to do as Apple did, and coordinate for them. They mentioned Indigo (then-owner of Kobo) as their preferred secret go-between.