states reach $69 million settlement in ebook pricing lawsuit

[Joykins]

http://money.cnn.com/news/newsfeeds/...ublishers.html

Ebook-buying consumers in 49 states (all except Minnesota) and five territories are set to receive $69 million as the result of a settlement between the states and HarperCollins, Hachette and Simon & Schuster. If the settlement is approved, the three publishers, who are also settling with the Department of Justice in the federal antitrust suit, will pay a total of $69 million to consumers who bought agency-priced ebooks between April 1, 2010 and May 21, 2012.

What I've been able to glean from looking around

* the settlement amount varies by state
* consumers will be reimbursed depending on the ebooks purchased and whether the ebooks were bestsellers.
* consumers will be reimbursed either by check or credits to their ebook purchasing account (e.g. if you bought a bunch of affected nook books, you can choose to have B&N credit your portion of the settlement to your account with them.
* once the settlement has been in force 30 days, refunds will begin.

I wonder how much I will get?

[murraypaul]

So the 'punishment' for the publishers is essentially that have to give you a few free books? The production cost of which is essentially zero. So all they lose is the opportunity cost that you might have bought the books anyway.

[elemenoP]

So, will retailers be allowed to offer discounts on ebooks from any publisher in the future? That's the part I want!!

eP

[ucfgrad93]

Originally Posted by Joykins

I wonder how much I will get?

I imagine that it will be quite small. A couple of bucks at most.

[jbcohen]

I don't think that this means and end to the nutty pricing schemes that we have seen in the past, simply means that some publishers have gotten a light tap on the wrist. I do not think that this will effect me at all since I rarely do any business with the comapnies named in this article. I typically like to do business with comapnies who are willing to sell books to me for lower than normal prices, most of the time that's amazon and Baen.

[wallcraft]

At least the states actually got money back for consumers. However, $69M does not sound like much spread out over all the ebook sales from 3 major publishers.

I assume the variation in payments per state is based on how many ebooks each state accounted for.

[Joykins]

Originally Posted by ucfgrad93

I imagine that it will be quite small. A couple of bucks at most.

Most class action lawsuits yield between $15-25 but these seem to depend on how many ebooks you bought. Looking back, I see I bought possibly hundreds of agency books.

[Joykins]

Originally Posted by elemenoP

So, will retailers be allowed to offer discounts on ebooks from any publisher in the future? That's the part I want!!

eP

I think so but there are lower limits on it, like even the retailers can't sell them at a loss. Details are still trickling out. Also this settlement doesn't include the publishers who didn't join (Macmillan and 1-2 others...)

[TimW]

Originally Posted by Joykins

Most class action lawsuits yield between $15-25 but these seem to depend on how many ebooks you bought. Looking back, I see I bought possibly hundreds of agency books.

$15-25? Hey, I could buy one whole Penguin book with that! Nah, I'll pass.

Originally Posted by Joykins

the publishers who didn't join (Macmillan and 1-2 others...)

MacMillan and Penguin.

[Joykins]

Originally Posted by TimW

$15-25? Hey, I could buy one whole Penguin book with that! Nah, I'll pass.

$15-25 is what you get perhaps if Chase bank did something horrible with your credit card terms or HP sells you a computer with used parts.

I'm thinking if you bought 100 agency ebooks (wild-ass guess) you might get that amount? I have no idea how they are quantifying it. I would love to know.

[TimW]

Originally Posted by Joykins

$15-25 is what you get perhaps if Chase bank did something horrible with your credit card terms or HP sells you a computer with used parts.

I'm thinking if you bought 100 agency ebooks (wild-ass guess) you might get that amount? I have no idea how they are quantifying it. I would love to know.

How do you figure who gets what? Great question...don't know the answer. I noticed that the timeframe for compensation goes all the way back to the beginning of the Agency, from April 1, 2010 to May 21, 2012. It would only be for titles from the settling publishers, of course. Perhaps MacMillan and Penguin will have to cough up a larger percentage at a later date.

[=X=]

Originally Posted by Joykins

What I've been able to glean from looking around

I read this some time ago and was a bit disappointed I was hoping they would get a stiffer fine for breaking the law.

Originally Posted by Joykins

* consumers will be reimbursed depending on the ebooks purchased and whether the ebooks were bestsellers.

I will be getting $0 back since that's how many books I bought as a result of my boycotting the whole price fixing.... I knew I'd break them.

What I find interesting is Google and Amazon have been liberated from the Agency model for a few months now. In that time I've already purchase a good amount of books from them.

=X=

[AnemicOak]

Originally Posted by =X=

What I find interesting is Google and Amazon have been liberated from the Agency model for a few months now. In that time I've already purchase a good amount of books from them.

Maybe I'm misunderstaning you, but nothing has changed on the Agency front at either retailer in the past few months.

[rogue_librarian]

The important thing seems to be that Agency pricing as we know it is dead for HarperCollins, Hachette und Simon & Schuster...

[Joykins]

...in a few months...?