The Financial Post reports on a lawsuit against Simon & Schuster Inc., HarperCollins Publishers, Hachette Book Group, Macmillan Publishers and Penguin Group Inc. as parties to a price fixing scheme cloaked in the adoption of the Agency Pricing model.
The Agency Pricing model leaves the pricing of eBooks in the hands of the publisher rather than the retailer. The suit by Seattle-based firm Hagens Berman Sobol Shapiro says Apple Inc. conspired with the publishers to push eBook prices up (sometimes higher than their hard cover versions) in an attempt to take the wind from eBook retail leader Amazon.com’s sails.
The publishers jumped on board to fix higher prices because the profits were vast, and it cooled off the eBook market to prop up sales of paper and hard cover titles.
