DOJ

Macmillan’s initial answer to the Justice Department’s antitrust suit filed on Tuesday May 29 is less extensive on a point-by-point basis than Penguin’s response, but it is no less definitive in denying the government’s allegations. “Despite an extensive investigation including production of the e-mails, calendars, and telephone logs of Macmillan’s CEO and other senior management, extensive interrogatories, and two full days of deposition of Macmillan’s CEO…the lack of direct evidence of conspiracy cited in the Goernment’s complaint is telling.” They add that the case is “based entirely on the little circumstantial evidence it was able to locate during its extensive […]

Publisher defendants Penguin and Macmillan filed their first answers to the Department of Justice’s antitrust law suit in Federal Court on Tuesday, with both companies categorically denying the charges. Most broadly, Penguin repeats its contention that it “did not conspire to fix the prices of eBooks with other publishers or with Apple. Penguin, at the invitation of Apple, independently negotiated and ultimately entered into a vertical distribution agreement with Apple.” They argue “a vertical distribution agreement is presumptively pro-competitive. New entry is presumptively pro-competitive. Broader distribution is presumptively pro-competitive. Lower barriers to entry are presumptively pro-competitive. Yet the Government intentionally […]

On Tuesday, Apple filed their answer the Department of Justice’s complaint against the company in the agency ebook pricing action, taking direct aim against the government’s choices and motives. “The Government sides with monopoly, rather than competition, in bringing this case. The Government starts from the false premise that an eBooks ‘market’ was characterized by ‘robust price competition’ prior to Apple’s entry. This ignores a simple and incontrovertible fact: before 2010, there was no real competition, there was only Amazon. At the time Apple entered the market, Amazon sold nearly nine out of every ten eBooks, and its power over […]

As expected would happen, Simon & Schuster has signed a memorandum of understanding with the original group of state attorneys general who filed suit against the company as part of the action over ebook pricing. That memo was executed May 10, the parties told Federal Judge Denise Cote, in a motion for dismissal without prejudice of the original complaint. They wrote in the filing that “plaintiff States and Simon and Schuster intend to enter into a settlement agreement, and plaintiff States will subsequently file with the Court a proposed notice and distribution plan.” The court docket confirms the federal case was “terminated” […]

US District Judge Denise Cote formally denied motions by the five agency publishers and Apple to dismiss the class action suit on behalf of ebook consumers over the alleged conspiracy to raise ebook prices via the agency model. The ruling was not unexpected, given the relatively low standards of “stat[ing] a plausible claim” for such a suit to go forward: “Proving conspiracy requires demonstrating ‘a unity of purpose or a common design and understanding, or a meeting of minds in an unlawful arrangement.’ The [complaint] plausibly alleges that each of the defendants shared the twin purposes of raising the price […]