On Friday, the lead law firm in the consolidated class action suits over the agency ebook pricing model Hagens Berman filed an expanded, revised and amended 86-page complaint and promptly issued a press release, as they did with their original filing last August. To understand the case you shouldn’t rely on that release, however, which misspells the name of defendant “Hachett Livre” and trumpets having “uncovered statements” in exotic places like the New Yorker, Steve Jobs’ biography and company blogs. The complaint itself follows the same reasoning as the original filing, basing their allegation of conspiracy on reasoning–that for any […]
DOJ
If This Story Is Right It Shows How Weak the Agency Lawsuits and Investigations Are
Washington antitrust attorney and former Justice Department lawyer Andre Barlow indicates to paidContent that in Justice’s current investigation “the main issue at stake is Apple and the publishers’ use of so-called ‘most favored nation’ clauses to set pricing.” Similarly, as they note, lead class action attorney Steve Berman writes, “The mfn clauses are significant restraints of trade and part of the anticompetitive acts we will attack.” Yet, as the article notes, “‘most favored nation’ clauses are not illegal, and are used in a variety of industries such as medical services.” Even Barlow “says that the clauses by themselves are not […]
Agency Lawsuits Will Be Handled In New York
Agency publishers got a measure of what passes for good news in today’s climate on Friday. A judicial panel on multidistrict litigation decided on Friday that the plethora of class action suits alleging conspiracy to fix ebook prices will be consolidated under the jurisdiction of the Southern District of New York. The panel said it “will serve the convenience of the parties and witnesses and promote the just and efficient conduct of this litigation.” The panel noted that “nearly all defendants, including all publishing defendants, are located in New York City, giving it a nexus to the allegations.” And “all […]
DOJ Confirms to Congress They Are Looking at eBooks
While the Department of Justice has previously acknowledged that it’s antritust division has been looking at agency ebook pricing, yesterday a particular DOJ official went on the record for the first time. Acting antitrust chief Sharis Pozen told a Congressional committee at a hearing that “we are also investigating the electronic book industry, along with the European Commission and the states attorneys general,” quoted in the WSJ. Of course DOJ began an investigation into Apple’s practices in the market for digital music–where it actually is dominant–back in the spring of 2010. The Texas attorney general’s office has been looking at […]
Still More Law Firms Want A Piece of Class-Action Agency Suits, As Pretrial Conferences Loom
There have been some new developments since we reported in August on the growing number of class action-seeking lawsuits launched against Apple and the six largest trade publishing houses on the grounds that the agency model violates antitrust laws. Between August 12 and September 23, at least a dozen additional suits were filed in California’s Northern District and New York’s Southern District, each alleging “conspiracy” and “collusion” to fix ebook prices against Apple and the publishers. Of greater importance now than the volume of suits is process by which the California and New York cases are slowly towards consolidation. In […]
Class Action Lawsuits Against Apple and Agency Publishers Proliferate
When the Seattle law firm Hagens Berman filed suit against Apple and publishers Hachette, Macmillan, HarperCollins, Penguin, and Simon & Schuster last week, they specifically sought media coverage–and got it. Without press releases, what was missed was that four additional suits, all seeking to be part of a larger class action, were filed in federal courts in New York and California between August 10 and August 12. Across the various suits, Random House, Amazon and Barnes & Noble all get added to the legal feasting as well. As you may surmise, each of these suits works off the same logic […]