Judge Trims Breach of Contract Claims in McGraw Hill EBook Sales Class Action Lawsuit

McGraw Hill EBook Sales Class Action Lawsuit Overview: 

• Who: A federal judge trimmed a class action lawsuit filed against McGraw Hill by a group of authors. 
• Why: Authors claim McGraw Hill violated their contracts with the authors by changing their policy to not pay them for the full sales price of their e-book sales.
• Where: The class action lawsuit was filed in New York federal court.

A federal judge in New York has dismissed breach of contract claims from a class action lawsuit alleging McGraw Hill fails to properly compensate its textbook authors for e-book sales. 

Authors claimed in a 2021 class action lawsuit that McGraw Hill manipulated the language in their contracts in order to pay them less royalties for electronic textbook sales. 

The judge sided with McGraw Hill however in determining that the authors were not entitled to receive royalties on content the publisher sells with the electronic versions, such as powerpoint presentations and lesson plans. 

Claims of breach of the implied covenant of good faith and fair dealing were upheld, however, with the judge ruling the authors had sufficiently alleged that McGraw Hill had acted in bad faith in order to enrich itself at their expense. 

Authors argue McGraw Hill originally paid them royalties for the entirety of the electronic versions of their textbooks sold on the publishers’ “Connect” online platform, however, recently changed its policy to not pay them royalties for anything beyond the textbook portion of sales. 

Authors Claim They Lost Up to 35% of Their Royalties, McGraw Hill Class Action Claims

The change decreases the amount of royalties received by 25-35%, authors argue, and violates contract agreements which previously paid them for the entirety of the sales price for textbooks sold on Connect.

The judge agreed with McGraw Hill, however, in determining that the publisher is not contractually obligated to pay royalties based on the total sales price.

Authors’ claims that the policy change amounted to a hosting fee were also rejected by the judge, who ruled the Connect platform was more than a host since it also publishes its own added content, such as tests and lesson plans. 

A separate class action lawsuit was filed against McGraw Hill and other book retailers in 2020 by college book resellers claiming the retailers engaged in price fixing. 

Have you purchased an electronic textbook published by McGraw Hill? Let us know in the comments! 

The plaintiffs are represented by Daniel L. Berger, Richard S. Schiffrin, and Caitlin M. Moyna of Grant & Eisenhofer PA, and Chanler A. Langham of Susman Godfrey LLP.

The McGraw Hill EBook Sales Class Action Lawsuit is Flynn, et al. v. McGraw Hill LLC, Case No. 1:21-cv-00614, in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York.

Read About More Class Action Lawsuits & Class Action Settlements:

• Georgia Democrats, Voters Sue Officials Over Prohibitively Long Poll Lines
• Minnesota Mail-In Ballot Voter Witness Requirement Dropped
• Does Zantac Cause Cancer?
• Uber Sexual Assault, Lyft Driver Rideshare App Lawsuit Investigation