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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.'"

3 of 107 comments (clear)

  1. 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.

    --
    Living With a Nerd
  3. 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