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Summary of the M-Edge Vs. Amazon Lawsuit
An anonymous reader writes "According to a lawsuit filed by Kindle accessory maker M-Edge, Amazon is a threatening, deceitful, and interfering big brother figure. M-Edge accuses the Kindle maker of patent infringement, contract interference, false advertising, unfair business practices, and extortion. A summary of the lawsuit and events over the course of the last 3 years paints a very dark picture of Amazon's tactics for crushing competition and stealing the best ideas from its partners. It sounds as though M-Edge may have a very strong case against Amazon, and if it wins we could see Amazon forced to remove its own Kindle accessories from Amazon.com."
A summary of the lawsuit and events over the course of the last 3 years paints a very dark picture of Amazon's tactics for crushing competition and stealing the best ideas from its partners.
*emphasis mine*
I'm no expert, but is 'painting a picture' another one of those libel-dodging phrases like 'allegedly'?
If God forks the Universe every time you roll a die, he'd better have a damned good memory.
they're fucking sleeves.
on the other hand, if they got anything they're claiming that amazon did in the suit in emails, recording or on paper, then amazon is throughly fucked. and another thing, wth was amazon thinking? if they want to alter the contract retroactively to be worse for the vendor than what it is because the vendor is doing good sales then they should just have bought the company, demanding tax on all sales by the company sounds just nasty and it makes no sense that if you got high volume your % to amazon goes up!
on yet another hand, again, they're sleeves and an opportunity product - an accessory for a device to be sold for a limited time and easily copied(which I guess why they patented it, though they might have been better off trying to find some other textile products to produce).
world was created 5 seconds before this post as it is.
M-Edge agreed to a long term contract rate with Amazon. Amazon decided they didn't like the contract that Amazon had agreed to, so it used illegal coercion to get M-Edge to agree to a new long term contract that was strictly worse than the old contract.
Its not an issue of the amount of the fee but the method at which it was obtained.
I didn't read all of it... but basically M-edge says:
* Amazon and M-edge signed a 3 year agreement where amazon would receive 8% + an additional 7% = 15% of their sales on Amazon
* about a year past, and amazon demanded and harassed m-edge to sign a new agreement where amazon would receive 32%. amazon threatened to delist m-edge from amazon.
* m-edge eventually agreed to the new agreement
* an additional period of time passed, and amazon demanded that m-edge sign a new contract where they would receive an additional 30% (or so) + 10% of all of m-edges sales to other retailers or they would be delisted.
* m-edge refused
* amazon sent out an 'approved kindle accessories manufacturers' list to m-edges retailers that did not include m-edge
* retailers called medge to ask about the list, and medge lost business, and some retailers stopped ordering
* medge continues to refuse to sign a new agreement.. amazon says medge breached prior agreement and terminates the agreement.
medge also says amazon infringes on one of their patents... and that amazon lists medge's products as unavailable (where they should not be listed at all) and suggests amazon's own accessories instead.
there's some other stuff about amazon withholding payments, etc... but the above is basically it.
and I'm sure these accessory makers don't like Amazon driving down the overinflated cost of accessories.
How exactly does using extortionist tactics to charge exorbitant fees from manufacturers drive down the cost of accessories? The fact is, the M-Edge case was hands down the best case for the Kindle for at least the first year after release and it was priced the same as the Amazon branded case that was a worthless piece of crap. The first Amazon branded Kindle case that was remotely usable was all but a carbon copy of the M-Edge case. Whether or not that case should have been patentable is a different debate, but if the suit is to be believed, Amazon basically just kept jacking up the fees they charged M-Edge until M-Edge could no longer compete pricewise with the official Amazon case.
The difference is that M-Edge and Amazon had an existing contract specifying 8%. Amazon tried using vague threats of "ramifications" if M-Edge didn't pay 25% instead AND pay it retroactively no less. When a threat is strictly legal, it's rarely hidden behind vague terminology unless someone watched WAY too many mob movies.
Once the contract expires sometime in 2012, Amazon may demand 25% if it wants, but until then, it needs to honor its existing freely entered agreement with M-Edge.