Posted on 04/11/2012 7:31:07 AM PDT by xzins
Wednesday, April 11, 2012
By AppleInsider Staff
Published: 10:05 AM EST (07:05 AM PST)
An antitrust suit accusing Apple and a number of book publishers of price fixing and collusion was filed by the U.S. Department of Justice on Wednesday.
The complaint was filed in a New York district court against Apple, Hachette, HarperCollins, Macmillan, and Penguin, according to Bloomberg. Indications first surfaced on Tuesday that the Department of Justice was readying an antitrust suit.
The justice department is expected to settle with "several publishers" this week, as Reuters reported earlier that Simon & Schuster, Hachette, Penguin, Macmillan and HarperCollins are involved in negotiations. Apple and Macmillan have reportedly refused to engage in settlement talks, and have argued that Apple's pricing agreements have enhanced competition in an industry that was previously dominated by Amazon.
Word of the government's interest in e-book price fixing first came to light in March, when ti was revealed that the Department of Justice had warned Apple and five major publishers of its plans to sue them. The government has taken issue with Apple's alleged role in convincing e-book publishers to switch to an "agency model" for sales, rather than the "wholesale model" that Amazon had implemented with its own Kindle store.
Under Amazon's method, publishers would sell their books at wholesale and let the bookseller set its own prices. Amazon repeatedly upset publishers by selling titles at a loss.
Ever hear of OPEC? I think the very existence of OPEC is an act of war, but I guess we like that transfer of wealth.
How’s that “Made in China” think working out Apple, HP, Dell, IBM, Sony, Gateway, Packard Bell, etc.? There, fixed it for you.
And which oil companies would those be? I'll give them a call and straighten things out.
First, though, I would like to say that your understanding of free enterprise and of the oil patch are lacking for you to think this. (You are not Bill O'Reilly by any chance are you?)
The croney capitalisim going on is between politicians and Wall Street and politicians and these phoney "green" energy companies like Sylindra and MS(?) Global. Big Oil is not involved. In fact, this administration is making it very difficult on the oil industry and they are even talking about the government fixing prices and an "excess profits" tax. All those things do is diminish supply and raise prices.
Who, exactly, sets the price for Kindle-edition books on Amazon? I always thought it was the publisher (based upon a certain amount the publisher is to receive for each purchase). Much like traditional print books - publishers have “suggested prices”, but they sell to booksellers at a certain price - the bookseller then sells at a particular mark-up.
What I have found - that isn’t always the case now. For some retailers, it is practically on a consignment arrangement.
But back to eBooks - I thought the eBook arrangement was similar - publisher x hypothetically expects say $5 per copy of the Kindle (or iBooks) edition... expecting Amazon (or Apple) to set price accordingly.
Now I read that pricing may be more like the app stores - the eSeller gets a flat percentage of revenues generated by a particular title. Thus the seller has more control over the price than the publisher (and writer).
So how did Apple collude with the publishers? Apple has no control over Amazon or how they do business. Apple can only make their own deals with publishers and allow the market to sort things out.
Unless I am missing something.
Exactly what is “anti-trust” over a producer (or in this case, publisher) to set a minimum price they will accept for their product (physical or electronic)? Again - in a truly free market - consumers are free to not buy.
We don’t need the DOJ to “protect” us - we just need to choose wisely how we spend our income. Nobody is forcing consumers to purchase books at all - much less the much vaunted “eBooks”, Kindle or otherwise.
And back to truly free market - publisher X demands certain prices. Sales plummet. Publisher either goes out of business, or changes business model.
HECK YEAH!!! Drop the Apple case, and focus on something more important - investigate and file suit against BIG OIL! The greedy bastards! They collude to drive up our prices, also they can make close to 10% profit! That is a horrendous amount of profit. NO company should make more than 1%... 5 % if they are politically on the correct side of the fence...
[/sarcasm]
Interesting mix of political donations (by Amazon.com):
http://www.opensecrets.org/pacs/pacgot.php?cycle=2012&cmte=C00360354
NO - they didn't. Apple simply worked with publishers to set the price of books offered through iBooks. The stipulation being - the publisher could not offer the same product elsewhere for a lower price (Apple's model is that they get a % of the sale price).
On the other hand - Amazon had begun setting fixed prices, with no input from the publishers.
Lets get back to the root - who owns the books? The publisher. Who should set the price? The publisher. Apple's business model allowed the publisher to do just that. Amazon - not so much.
Horse Hockey. If the Publisher is selling to the end customer THEN he gets to set the price. However it is the Retailer that decides what price he wants to sell it for. If the Publisher doesn't like the price the Retailer sells it at he has the right not to deal with the retailer.
No horse hockey.
If a publisher expects $X for said book, Amazon sells it for less than X, then what does the publisher get? THAT is horse hockey.
Now - say this same publisher wants to be paid $10 for each book - then Amazon should set the offer price at a point that gives the publisher $10. IF the book does not sell at that price, then so be it. The publisher then has to determine if they will accept a lower price.
And that is what publishers were trying to do when Amazon decided to arbitrarily set prices, then penalize publishers who wanted higher prices. They went to Apple who agreed to the Publisher’s desires. Now Amazon is miffed and pulled some strings in the DOJ.
they will have to prove it.
The LEGAL issue is the fact all the publishers got together and together agreed to set a minimum price for ANY book. There was no competition in determining that price.
The publishers were essentially and have been essentially trying to find a system where they can chage the same for hard and ebook versions.
there have already been settlements where the publishers have signed consent decress settlements admitting as much.
Now the issues is proving that apple was in on the price fixing scheme. (IOW apple agrees that the itune store will go with the fixed price and if amazon does not agree, then they will all yank their titles as part of a coordinated arm twisting)
Yes and colluded with the rest of the publishers to set prices higher. Which is against the law.
Amazon saying they will sell at a price no higher than "x" is not illegal. However the Publishers and Apple agreeing to sell at no lower than "x" is considered price fixing and indeed illegal.
"If a publisher expects $X for said book, Amazon sells it for less than X, then what does the publisher get? THAT is horse hockey."
Ahhh No, if the Publisher wants a higher price he is allowed to either sell it himself or go to another retailer. BUT He is not allowed to collude with other Publishers to fix a price so as to create a "false bottom" in the market.
A pathetic specious argument.
If Amazon pays the publisher's wholesale price, it's none of their business if Amazon sells anything at a loss--- to themselves only. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------
A pathetic specious argument.
If Amazon pays the publisher's wholesale price, it's none of their business if Amazon sells anything at a loss--- to themselves only.
That is PRECISELY what Apple did!
Gheez, it ain't that hard to find the facts.
You pay the same price for the iPad version of a book as th Amazon digital version. That’s hat he agreement between the publishers was all about.
A book is not simply digits. It is is months to twenty years of someone’s life, followed by weeks of work by editors, publishers, and other people. Just because there is no paper doesn’t mean it’s cheap. Printing costs are only a fraction of a books price.
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