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Connecticut AG To Grill Amazon, Apple Over E-Book Price Fixing

Posted by Soulskill on from the jig-is-up dept.

suraj.sun tips news that Connecticut's Attorney General has demanded a meeting with Apple and Amazon to discuss anti-competitive pricing methods in the e-book market. From Ars: "Richard Blumenthal says that he wants representatives from both on-line giants in his office ASAP to discuss what Blumenthal calls their 'most favored nation' arrangements with big book companies like Macmillan and Simon & Schuster. The crux of the MFN concept is that a given product maker must offer a given distributor the lowest price it's offering anyone. If a competing distributor gets a price break, they get it too. 'The net effect is fairly obvious,' Blumenthal warned in his letter to Amazon (PDF), 'in that MFNs will reduce the publisher's incentive to offer a discount to Amazon if it would have to offer the same discount to Apple, leading to the establishment of a price floor for e-books offered by the publisher.'"

7 of 107 comments (clear)

  1. Zero cost copying by FriendlyLurker · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Of course ebook prices are fixed (amoungst other digital "goods") - how the hell do you price something that can be copied infinitely at next to zero cost? And therein lies the problem...

    1. Re:Zero cost copying by FooAtWFU · · Score: 4, Insightful

      It's one thing to say "This book will cost $14.99 from our store." It's quite another to say "All the books we sell will be $14.99, and if you let us sell your book you're not allowed to sell this book anywhere else for cheaper."

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    2. Re:Zero cost copying by AHuxley · · Score: 5, Informative

      http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lysine_price-fixing_conspiracy should give some insight into the cartel issue and why it needs to be fixed.

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      Domestic spying is now "Benign Information Gathering"
  2. AUGH by Pojut · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Fucking e-books. Why does it cost more to buy an e-book than it does to buy a dead-tree paperback? wtf?

    I absolutely adore my nook, but it's filled with public works and books that have been gifted to me...I refuse to pay $10 for a digital copy of a book.

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    Living With a Nerd
  3. Grandstanding by unixan · · Score: 4, Insightful

    This is just grandstanding by a politician running for office. Neither Amazon nor Apple are headquartered in Connecticut, which makes the appropriate action for this state AG to make a filing to the FTC.

    Except, of course, filing with the FTC just doesn't sound as exciting to voters.

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  4. That doesn't hold by Mr.+Underbridge · · Score: 4, Insightful

    it seems kind of silly that the best use of the Connecticut AG's time is making sure people aren't overpaying a few bucks for items they're obviously already comfortable purchasing at that price.

    By that logic, there's never been a damaging monopoly at all - after all, by definition, all the customers are comfortable paying the price charged or they wouldn't be customers, right?

  5. Folks it is election season! by ScaredOfTheMan · · Score: 5, Informative

    "Richard Blumenthal (born February 13, 1946) is an American lawyer and politician. A member of the Democratic Party, he has been Attorney General of Connecticut since 1991. He is a candidate in the 2010 U.S. Senate election for the seat currently held by Christopher Dodd.[5]"

    Nuff said.

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Blumenthal