Amazon, Big Five E-Book Price Fixing Suit Is Revived

In a 125-page Second Consolidated Amended complaint, filed on November 21 in the Southern District of New York, lawyers led by prominent Seattle-based firm Hagens Berman once again accuse Amazon and the Big Five publishers (Hachette, HarperCollins, Macmillan, Simon & Schuster, and Penguin Random House) of a hub-and-spoke agreement to eliminate price competition from the e-book market in violation of the Sherman Act, specifically through the use of a Most Favored Nation clause and other contract terms.

The suit claims that Amazon is a monopoly that has used its market dominance to "coerce" e-book publishers into "entering into contractual provisions that foreclose competition on price or product availability." Such actions allow Amazon to reap "supracompetitive" profit margins on e-book sales, often in excess of 300%, and to harm consumers by keeping e-book prices artificially high.