An open question for everyone following along — and a critical issue for agents and authors whose deals will be discussed — is how the court will treat the “highly confidential” information that was garnered and discussed during discovery and deposition, with promises that key details would not be revealed at trial. In pre-trial filings, the government indicates that, “Confidential exhibits will be kept out of public video during in-court testimony (i.e., turning off gallery monitors) and kept under seal until the end of trial. Partially confidential exhibits may be publicly displayed with the confidential portions redacted; confidential portions will […]
Antitrust Trial
A3: More Details On Printing and Bidding Issues
On Friday we highlighted two pre-trial disputes: The DOJ trying to exclude discussion of PRH’s pledge to have Simon & Schuster mostly bid independently after the merger, and PRH trying to block the DOJ from presenting a broader case than what was in their original complaint, extending to look at PRH and Bertelsmann’s influence in the limited market for book printing. Weekend filings shed a little more light on both issues. While the DOJ’s full response on the book printing issue was filed under seal, PRH’s reply quotes from the sealed document (go figure), underscoring the emphasis Justice may want […]