The Opportunity Apple Just Created For Publishers

[Andrew H.]

Originally Posted by ilovejedd

Simon & Schuster used to sell ebooks on their site. Pretty great as it was usually 30% (or was it 35%?) off the list price. They used to have the best prices on their own titles. Too bad they switched to agency pricing.

*sigh* Isn't agency pricing a form of price fixing? I've always wondered, is that even legal?

Have you ever bought anything from iTunes? Or a real estate agent? Or consignment shop.

There's nothing illegal with agency pricing in general - the owner is setting the price and using an agent to sell the product. Of course, there may be legal issues with specific implementations of agency pricing - like if all of the producers collude to fix the prices that they will sell the products at, or engage in other anticompetitive activities.