Attorneys for the plaintiffs have said only that they look forward to proving what they see as a major e-boom price-fixing scam
Catching up with PW's Andrew Albanese
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The so-called “Big Five” publishers are now named as defendants in a consumer class action lawsuit that alleges a conspiracy with Amazon to fix prices in the e-book market, Publishers Weekly reports.
The news comes after the initial complaint, first filed in the Southern District of New York on January 14 by Seattle-based firm Hagens Berman, portrayed the Big Five publishers—Hachette, HarperCollins, Macmillan, Penguin Random House, and Simon & Schuster—as “co-conspirators” in a bid to restrain competition in the e-book market, but had named only Amazon as a defendant.
“The attorneys for the plaintiffs have said only that they look forward to proving what they see as a major e-boom price-fixing scam,” Andrew Albanese, PW senior writer, says.
“The case so far boils down to an allegation that the price-fixing happens through the use of a ‘Most Favored Nation’ (MFN) clause in all publishers’ contracts with Amazon that effectively ensures Amazon cannot be undersold,” he tells CCC’s Chris Kenneally.
Every Friday, CCC’s “Velocity of Content” speaks with the editors and reporters of “Publishers Weekly” for an early look at the news that publishers, editors, authors, agents and librarians will be talking about when they return to work on Monday.
