HarperCollins, Hachette, Macmillan and Simon & Schuster have joined with Apple in offering to settle with the European Commission over the introduction of agency ebook pricing in Europe, “with a view to seeking an early resolution of the case.” The Commission is “still investigating Pearson’s conduct” and its “compatibility” with EU regulations. The proposed settlement closely mirrors conditions that three of those publishers have already agreed to in the US. As in the US, Apple’s existing agency agreements with the Settlers as well as Penguin will be terminated and the most favored nations clause will be barred, and the Settlers’ […]
Legal
Publishers Join DOJ In Opposing Kohn’s Appeal of eBook Pricing Settlement
The three settling publishers filed a joint motion with Judge Denise Cote opposing Bob Kohn’s request for standing to appeal the ebook pricing settlement. The Settlers say in their filing they “have real interests in the entry of the final judgment and will incur increased costs as the litigation process is drawn out by Mr. Kohn’s ongoing attempts to participate in this litigation.” They call say “Kohn’s motion is only a transparent effort to disrupt settlement” and assert that he wishes “to step into the shoes of the settling publishers in derrogation of their clear wish.” In a separate filing, the […]
Penguin Releases Pricing Charts; Judge Grants Preliminary Approval for State Settlement
Penguin asked for–and now has received–permission to shar ein the open court docket the previously “confidential” pre-agency pricing data they referred to in opposing the approval of the federal settlement. Even now that the settlement has been finalized, “Penguin believes it is in the public interest to make evidence like this public,” they told Judge Cote. “Exhibit A, compiled using historical pricing information from Amazon, shows that (1) the average Amazon price, on a title by title basis, for the majority of Penguin new release eBook titles was higher than $9.99 prior to the agency model.” The data comprises the […]
Judge Cote Appears to Run Out the Clock On Emergency Stay
Sometimes the judge holds all the cards that matter. Bob Kohn’s attempt to obtain an emergency stay of the enactment of the Department of Justice’s ebook pricing settlement pending appeal before all three Apple contracts were voided and the landscape reset itself appears to have been stymied by Judge Denise Cote, who has effectively run out the clock on Kohn by inaction. While Judge Cote denied Kohn’s request for a stay earlier this week, she didn’t rule one way or the other on whether to grant him standing to appeal the ruling in the first place, stretching that process out […]
Annals of Agency Lite: Wednesday
While people wait for the next shoe (or two), here are some additional observations on nouveau Agency. Feel free to send us your questions (or post them in the comments). Will Everything Go Faster? A process that could have taken over a month to recalibrate now looks like it could be mostly resolved by the end of this week or beginning of next, following Harper’s quick move to new contracts. That plus the imminent expiration of Apple contracts is both accelerating and potentially simplifying the renegotiation process. And as we have seen with Harper, even when retailers may not have […]
On Kohn’s First Appeal, Judge Sets Process–For Next Week
Judge Denise Cote acknowledged Bob Kohn’s requests to appeal and stay her judgment in the ebook pricing settlement in a brief notice issued Monday. The motion to stay was denied. Anticipating that, as we reported yesterday Kohn had already gone to the Second Circuit Court of Appeals with his request. Though Kohn was initially trying to forestall the first stage of the settlement’s decree–voiding Apple’s ebook contracts within a week–Judge Cote has set deadlines for next week on his motion to appeal, at which point the entire contractual landscape for the Settlers may have changed. Opposition to Kohn’s motion is […]