State and consumer class action attorneys filed notice last week that they have finalized their settlement with Macmillan, first announced in January. The publisher will not only pay out $20 million to settle the suits, as planned, but will also pay $3 million to cover litigation and “investigation” costs; $2.475 million for plaintiff’s attorney fees; and $1,000 for each of the named class action plaintiffs as a “service award”, for a total of $26.25 million. Macmillan is also formally excluded from the June 3 trial, which Judge Cote ruled separately that Penguin must participate in, despite the publisher asking for […]
Legal
DOJ Moves for Final Judgment in Penguin Settlement
In keeping with the schedule proposed at the beginning of the year, the DOJ filed a motion on April 18 moving for a final judgment on their settlement with Penguin from December. They asked Judge Cote to rule “without further hearing if the Court determines that entry is in the public interest” especially since in the DOJ’s view, a delay in doing so will also delay the implementation of ebook discounting: “There is no just reason to delay the availability of these benefits for consumers.” Answering papers, if any, must be filed by May 7, in accordance with the proposed […]
Penguin Settles with EC On eBook Pricing
The last holdout, Penguin has now agreed to settle with the European Commission by making “commitments” on changes in ebook pricing and contracts. The proposed terms are “substantially the same” as those already agreed to by the other four agency publishers as well as Apple. (They will terminate existing agency agreements and move to agency lite for two years, and avoid any MFN clauses for 5 years.) As with the previous agreements, there is a a one-month comment period, after which the “commitments” can be made legally binding. In the EC’s view: “Penguin chose not to offer commitments to the […]
Booksellers Plead with Court Not to Dismiss DRM Case
The three booksellers who sued Amazon and the six largest publishing houses for what they characterized as restrictive DRM practices filed a response to those parties’ motions to dismiss the case. In the memo, filed yesterday, Posman Books, Fiction Addiction, and Book House of Stuyvesant Plaza say Amazon are “misreading” the complaint and relying on an “unsupported assertion of what they claim is contained in non-public contracts that they have purposefully decided not to produce to the court.” The original suit–already revised and amended once–“more than adequately alleged harm to competition in the market for ebooks” in the booksellers’ view. […]
Penguin Settlement Draws 3 Comments
The Department of Justice filed its required report to the court on Tunney Act comments on the proposed ebook pricing settlement with Penguin–which generated a total of 3 comments. Not unexpectedly, they disagree with Bob Kohn’s latest objections: “Mr. Kohn is not correct that firms may, as a matter of law, conspire to undo what they regard to be anticompetitive conduct. As the United States stated its Original Response to Comments, even if there were evidence to substantiate claims of monopolization or predatory pricing by Amazon, it would not have been acceptable for the Publisher Defendants to conspire with Apple […]
Harper and Open Road, Cont.
HarperCollins and Open Road have both followed their respective motions from mid-March asking for summary judgment in the lawsuit over ebook rights to the late Jean Craighead George’s Julie of the Wolves with reply filings. “Did, too,” Harper asserts in their latest brief; “Did, not,” Open Road responds with vigor. Each side reasserts its case with even finer detail. Since it rests with the judge–there is a reason older ebook rights are termed by many as simply “in dispute”–we’re not sure it’s worth examining the latest arguments in depth, but both filings are attached for those who wish to read […]