So while the Nook and other e-book devices continue to overtake Barnes and Noble and other retailers’ store displays and paperbacks are becoming less of a hot commodity, digital publishers face multiple suits regarding the pricing of these digital books that have swept paperbacks out of the scene.
Back in August a suit was filed against Apple and five major digital book publishing sites accusing them of “jack[ing] up the price of e-books in an effort to wrest back pricing power from Amazon.” The suit also claimed that millions of e-book buyers overpaid for the e-books because of the price-fix.
For now the allegations are being put on hold until a venue for the trial is selected; a hearing is set for December. Lawyers have sought out a panel called the Judicial Panel for Multidistrict Litigation to consolidate cases and choose a venue for them, which is out of the ordinary as a panel like that is usually chosen for more severe cases such as the BP oil spill.
And with Manhattan being the central publishing arena it is likely the trial will be held in New York, but nothing is set in stone.
There is also no guarantee the filers will succeed in their suits; resale pricing has been considered legitimate for other products in the past, so why any different for e-books?
Barbara Sicalides, an anti-trust expert at Pepper Hamilton makes a point that “[publishers’ can’t just cry, ‘we’re losing business,” but the proper records will have to be presented to prove the agency pricing model is legitimate.
A calculated 15% of book revenue is generated through e-books; the numbers are increasing at a fast pace than before. And with the Amazon Kindle Fire availability just around the corner, expect more and more people happily reading via their e-books.
(via Techland)
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