Last October I posted about Amazon’s foray into book publishing in order to get around fixed pricing agreements on e-books. An example showed the same price for a paperback book as the Kindle e-book, despite the added costs of actually creating the book.
Several news sources are reporting that the Department of Justice has looked into price-fixing by publishers that has previously limited the flexibility of retailers to set e-book prices.
The Department of Justice’s case (which you can read for yourself via The Verge) accuses Apple and five major publishers of conspiring to raise the price of ebooks by creating a fixed price that all sellers have to use. The goal was to end Amazon’s $9.99 price dominance and raise prices to the now standard $12.99-$14.99 for new ebook releases.
While the news is still fresh, several publishers have already moved to settle the lawsuit. The effect of the lawsuit should be that publishers are no longer able to stifle competition by setting a fixed minimum price for their digital media.
Sources:
Amazon’s New Business Model
What’s with Apple Price-Fixing Ebooks? – Lifehacker
