Federal Magistrate Judge Valerie Figueredo has filed a 59-page report, recommending dismissal of the fairly absurd lawsuit filed by class-action specialists Hagens Berman and Sperling & Slater on behalf of a single plaintiff bookseller charging that Amazon and the Big 5 publishers had colluded to grant Amazon better terms and control wholesale book prices. In March 2021, Illinois bookseller Bookends & Beginnings filed suit charging “defendants’ anticompetitive conduct has depressed book sales in the U.S. market.” Last fall, the publishers and Amazon motioned for the case to be dismissed. Judge Figueredo’s analysis, just made public with some modest redactions, urges […]