A little later than planned, attorneys general from 49 states (all but Minnesota), five territories and the District of Columbia have filed with Judge Denise Cote’s court a proposed settlment of their ebook price-fixing action with Hachette Book Group, HarperCollins and Simon & Schuster. The publishers have agreed to pay approximately $69 million in consumer restitution, and “about $7.5 million to the states for legal fees and other costs.” (When the agreement to settle was announced in April, the AGs said they expected the publishers would pay about $52 million, but that was before Simon & Schuster had agreed to […]
DOJ
Judge Cote Accepts Authors Guilds’ Brief; Will Accept A Kohn Filing of 5 Pages Only
In a brief ruling on Tuesday, Judge Denise Cote accepted the amicus curiae brief submitted by the Authors Guild, and agreed to do the same for businessman and attorney Bob Kohn, as long as he resubmits his brief by next Tuesday, September 4 and turns his dozens of pages into 5 pages or less, just as everone else was ordered to do. “Kohn had a full opportunity to express his opinion on the proposed FInal Judgment during the public comment period and took full advantage of this opportunity. Any additional remarks need only address new arguments presented in the Government’s […]
DOJ Response Again Stresses “Unmistakable Consumer Harm” From Agency Model Pricing
Filing late in the day on Wednesday evening, the Department of Justice responded to the latest wave of objections to the proposed ebook pricing settlement with the same disdain they have brought to any dissenting views through the Tunney Act process. Rather than addressing head-on the contention that the government has defined the relevant market too narrowly in looking at ebooks as things unto themselves (separate from ebook readers, and other elements of the book publishing market), the government answered by saying that every opponent of an antitrust action believes they are special. “While ebooks are a relatively new arrival […]
Macmillan Agrees with Penguin On Lack of Government Analysis; Says “The size of Amazon’s market share is at the center”
The third of the three litigating defendants to file, Macmillan advances one argument similar to Penguin’s: That the government has not provided “a single economic study or analysis showing why its mandated pricing scheme is necessary to undo the effects of the alleged collusion, or why it is in ‘the public interest.” More broadly, “Other than to explain the government’s intention in requiring such substantial limitations on price restrictions, the CIS offers no precedential or evidentiary support for why those limitations would be in the public interest, no analysis of the market effect of such a prohibition and no analysis […]
An Overview of Wednesday’s eBook Filings: Will Judge Cote Care?
Wednesday afternoon brought the expected additional filings with the court regarding the ebook pricing settlement. Two of the litigating defendants, Apple and Penguin, already had the right to be heard in 5 pages or fewer. The Authors Guild, like attorney Bob Kohn, have asked for permission to file additional remarks as a friend of the court and provided their brief on a conditional basis, subject to Judge Denise Cote’s ruling. Apple’s argument is the boldest–that they are being denied due process of law and penalized by having their ebook contracts with the settling publishers (the Settlers) voided and their MFNs […]
Authors Guild Tells the Court DOJ Defined The Market Too Narrowly
Though the Authors Guild did file their opposition to the settlement with the court during the public comment period, they have now asked permission to file another 5 pages with Judge Cote as a friend of the court. Their argument is that the DOJ’s response to the public comments “ignores the far-reaching effects of the proposed judgment” and the Guild address the “true impact” in their brief. Similar to one of the arguments made separately by attorney Bob Kohn, the Authors Guild asserts that Justice defined “the relevant market or markets” far too narrowly. “it deems the impact of the […]