Amazon.com and 'Big Five' publishers accused of ebook price-fixing

[SheltieLover]

https://amp.theguardian.com/books/2021/jan/15/amazoncom-and-big-five-publishers-accused-of-ebook-price-fixing

Class action lawsuit filed in US claims the houses have colluded with the online giant to keep prices artificially high

Amazon.com and the “Big Five” publishers – Penguin Random House, Hachette, HarperCollins, Macmillan and Simon & Schuster – have been accused of colluding to fix ebook prices, in a class action filed by the law firm that successfully sued Apple and the Big Five on the same charge 10 years ago.

The lawsuit, filed in district court in New York on Thursday by Seattle firm Hagens Berman, on behalf of consumers in several US states, names the retail giant as the sole defendant but labels the publishers “co-conspirators”. It alleges Amazon and the publishers use a clause known as “Most Favored Nations” (MFN) to keep ebook prices artificially high, by agreeing to price restraints that force consumers to pay more for ebooks purchased on retail platforms that are not Amazon.com.

More at link.

[AmyStrange]

1. I have four e-books that I'm selling through Amazon. Here's how they fix my price.

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The minimum they will allow me to charge for each of my e-books is $2.99.

I make $2.04 off that price. Amazon makes $.95.

I don't know what other e-book publishers do, but in my case, I set the price, and I always choose the minimum, because I don't see any reason to gouge my readers. I'd rather just charge a dollar, but Amazon won't let me.

If this is standard procedure at Amazon, I assume that it's standard at other places also, and that makes me wonder how accurate this conspiracy is.

Of course, my assumptions may be wrong, and other publishers may have a greater control over the price of their e-books than I do.

All I can really say for sure is that ultimately, besides setting the minimum, I'm the one who sets the price of my book, and not Amazon.
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