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An Illinois shop has lodged a class action lawsuit against Amazon and other top five publishers claiming they conspired to drive up book prices and put small stores out of business.
The lead plaintiff, Bookends & Beginnings, along with its owner Nina Barrett, filed the complaint in New York federal court in March. The class action contends that Bookends, along with other small bookstores across the country, are shut out by anticompetitive conduct by Amazon and the top five publishing companies in the US.
Specifically, the class action claims that Amazon contracts with the top five publishers, including HarperCollins Publishers, Simon & Schuster, Macmillan Publishing Group, Hachette Book Group, and Penguin Random House, for early releases and exclusive deals on print books. Bookends alleges that the publishers would be better served by making the same deals with small bookshops, like itself, but have succumbed to Amazon’s market dominance.
Barret says she filed the lawsuit to protect Bookends and other independent booksellers from Amazon’s exponential growth.
“I’ve watched Amazon grow into the juggernaut it’s become,” said Barret in a statement reportedly issued after her lawsuit was filed. “I’ve experienced firsthand the devastation to publishing, bookselling, and to local brick-and-mortar shopping that’s resulted.”
This class action joins at least two others filed over alleged price-fixing by Amazon this year.
In January, Amazon was accused of putting a “stranglehold” on the eBook business, using its market power to prevent price competition, and resulting in consumers paying inflated prices for eBooks, in another class action filed in New York federal court.
A month later, the retail giant and top five publishers were hit with a class action lawsuit by an Arizona couple who claim they and other consumers pay inflated prices for eBooks due to Amazon’s anticompetitive conduct.
Bookends & Beginnings says that Amazon and the publishers have been engaging in the same antitrust conduct when it comes to print books – driving up prices for consumers and putting independent bookstores out of business.
The plaintiff is seeking to represent Classes of both online and brick-and-mortar booksellers who purchase books directly from the big five publishers. In addition to damages, the class action lawsuit wants a court order stopping Amazon’s alleged anticompetitive conduct, the unlawful restraint of trade, and the monopolization of the print book market.
Do you think you’ve paid inflated book prices because of Amazon’s alleged antitrust actions? Tell us in the comment section below!
The lead plaintiff is represented by Nathaniel Tarnor, Steve W. Berman, and Barbara A. Mahoney of Hagens Berman Sobol Shapiro LLP, and Eamon P. Kelly, Joseph M. Vanek, Paul E. Slater, Alberto Rodriguez, and Jeffery Bergman of Sperling & Slater, PC.
The Amazon Book Prices Antitrust Class Action Lawsuit is Bookends & Beginnings, LLC v. Amazon.com, Inc., et al., Case No. 1:21-cv-02584 in the U.S. District Court Southern District of New York.
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