Big publishing
Publishing in 2021 is dominated by big conglomerates. Small presses, like small bookshops, are tough businesses if you want to pay the rent, produce your books, pay your staff and make a profit. Many can’t.
In the UK, 24% of the book market is in the hands of one company, Penguin Random House, and 16% belongs to Hachette Livre. So that’s about 40% of the industry under the control of two giants. The picture in the US is similar.
Amazon legal challenge
In America there is a substantial series of legal moves in train against Amazon.com and the “Big Five” publishers. The five are: Penguin Random House, Hachette, HarperCollins, Macmillan, and Simon & Schuster.
New York attorneys Hagens Bergman have filed a class action against Amazon.com as defendants and the Big Five as “co-conspirators”. Other claims may follow in other states.
The claim is that ebook prices have been maintained at artificially high levels by an agreement between the six.
90% of ebooks are sold in America through Amazon. 50% of print sales.
The claim
The claim is as follows:
In violation of section 1 of the Sherman Antitrust Act, Defendant and the Big Five Co-conspirators agreed to various Most Favoured Nation arrangements.
It is claimed that in restraint of trade they caused ebook buyers to overpay for their products. The agreement was allegedly that the Big Five would not allow any other retailer to undercut Amazon. These are class actions and could involve a multitude of claimants. If successful, the damages could be huge. If enough successful actions were brought all over the US even Amazon could feel the pain.
We shall watch progress with interest! We emphasise that these are simply claims. Nothing has been proved.