Kiev. Ukraine. Ukraine Gate – January 18, 2021 – Technology
American law firm Hagens Berman has filed a class action lawsuit against online retailer Amazon.com Inc., accusing the company of overpricing e-books.
Hagens Berman claims that Amazon, which controls 90% of the US e-book market, colluded with five major publishers – Hachette, HarperCollins, Macmillan, Penguin-Random House and Simon & Schuster – in 2015 to inflate prices.
As a result of the collusion, publishers raised the prices of their e-books by 30%, which allowed Amazon to avoid competition from other retailers, Hagens Berman said.
“In a competitive market, the Big Five (publishers – ed.) Would sell e-books on their sites or through Amazon’s competitors who charge lower commissions at a lower cost,” the statement said.
In 2011, Hagens Berman filed a lawsuit against Apple Inc. and five publishers, making similar charges against them. Apple then paid $ 400 million to settle the claims.
As the WSJ notes, Amazon released the Kindle e-reader in 2007, offering bestsellers at discounted prices, allowing the company to gain market share.
There are several antitrust investigations currently underway against Amazon. In October, the US House of Representatives antitrust subcommittee completed its 16-month investigation into several technology companies, concluding that Amazon has a monopoly on third-party sellers on its platform.
In 2019, the US Department of Justice launched an investigation into the dominance of large tech companies, including Amazon. The US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) also reviews industry practices.