The antitrust subcommittee of the House Judiciary Committee issued their long-awaited report documenting the extensive ways in which Amazon, Apple, Facebook and Google control, dominate and abuse markets: “To put it simply, companies that once were scrappy, underdog startups that challenged the status quo have become the kinds of monopolies we last saw in the era of oil barons and railroad tycoons. Although these firms have delivered clear benefits to society, the dominance of Amazon, Apple, Facebook, and Google has come at a price. These firms typically run the marketplace while also competing in it—a position that enables them to […]
Legal
Judge Rules Government’s Case Against Bolton Will Go Forward
John Bolton’s motion to dismiss the DOJ lawsuit seeking proceeds of his book The Room Where It Happened failed Thursday, with US District Court Judge Royce C. Lamberth finding that the government’s position that Bolton breached prepublication review was sufficiently supported by facts. At stake are his $2 million advance and royalties from the bestselling book, which Bolton will have to forfeit to the government if he loses. Next up, Judge Lamberth has said he would rule “expeditiously” on both the government’s motion for summary judgment and Bolton’s motion to delay it. While a summary judgment has a high standard […]
White House Aides Intervened in Review of Bolton’s Book, Official Says
Ellen Knight, the former NSC official who oversaw the prepublication review of former national security advisor John Bolton’s book, filed an extensive and extraordinary letter with the court in the DOJ’s case against Bolton. Through her attorney Kenneth L. Wainstein, Knight describes a “designedly apolitical process [that] had been commandeered by political appointees for a seemingly political purpose.” She says that White House officials, starting with the National Security Advisor Robert O’Brien and acting through NSC attorney Michael Ellis, a “political appointee with no previous classification authority experience,” falsely and erroneously found that Bolton’s book contained classified information. Knight says […]
Corporate: Early Retirement At HMH, and Judge Throws Out Parneros’s Defamation Claim Against BN
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt announced that 166 employees — five percent of the company’s workforce — opted to participate in a voluntary early retirement incentive program, which had first been announced August 6 in the company’s quarterly report. The program was offered to all US-based employees who are at least 55 years old and have at least five years of service, comprising about 18 percent of the workforce. For the majority of employees who elected to leave, the decision was effective September 4, though a few are leaving later in the year. According to the SEC filing, the total one-time cash […]
Trade Organizations Ask Congress to Limit Amazon’s Anti-Competitive Behavior
As Congress has been investigating big tech companies for anti-competitive behavior and searching for ways to regulate these ever-growing giant entities, three publishing trade organizations have joined together to focus attention on the obvious monopoly that is easy to address. The chief executives of the AAP, the Authors Guild and the ABA sent a joint letter to House Antitrust Subcommittee chair Representative David Cicilline regarding the “concentrated power and influence” of Amazon. “The competitive framework of the publishing industry has been fundamentally altered in recent years—and remains at serious risk of further diminishment—because of the Amazon’s concomitant market dominance allows […]
Parneros and Barnes & Noble Make Final Arguments Before Judge Rules on Summary Judgement
In an August 6 phone conference, attorneys for Barnes & Noble and BN’s former ceo Demos Parneros presented final arguments on the bookseller’s motion for summary judgment dismissing two of the three claims against them before Judge Mary Kay Vyskocil, who replaced John G. Koeltl for unstated reasons in February. The motion, which aims to throw out Parneros’ claims that BN defamed him and failed to act in good faith and fair dealing when they terminated him in July 2018, had been fully briefed when the case was reassigned, and then was delayed by the pandemic. The hour-long conference, conducted […]