Thursday, August 07, 2008

Update on Amazon vs. Booklocker Anti-Trust Lawsuit

Here is the latest on the anti-trust lawsuit against Amazon.com.

From Publisher's Weekly:

The legal skirmishing between Booklocker.com and Amazon in Booklocker’s antitrust lawsuit filed against the giant e-tailer got a bit heated last month as Amazon filed a motion to dismiss the case and Booklocker filed its response to keep the lawsuit alive. The case stems from Amazon’s decision to make print-on-demand publishers use its BookSurge subsidiary to manufacture POD titles if they want to sell their titles on Amazon directly (publishers that don’t use BookSurge will have their buy button removed). In May, Booklocker filed suit, charging that Amazon’s action was in violation of antitrust laws.

In its motion to dismiss, Amazon says that Booklocker is unhappy because it wants to use Amazon’s services “but doesn’t want to agree to the purchase terms announced by Amazon.” The company further argues that “there is no federal antitrust claim here. It has been well established for nearly a century that a retailer such as Amazon is free to decide unilaterally which suppliers’ products it will purchase, stock or resell, and the terms on which it will do so.” Amazon contends that its changes to its POD policy are aimed at improving the efficiency of its supply chain as part of its vertically integrated business, and that “antitrust laws simply do not prevent Amazon.com from making unilateral changes to its supply chain.”


Go to the article at Publisher's Weekly to read Booklocker's response. Very interesting.

The judge is supposed to make a ruling on Amazon's request to dismiss the lawsuit after Labor Day.

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