US Government Finally Realizes That Publishers & Apple Conspiring To Raise eBook Prices Is Price Fixing
from the well,-duh... dept
Almost exactly two years ago, when the big publishers, along with Apple, effectively forced Amazon to allow the publishers to jack up prices on ebooks, I noted that this looked like a classic case of price fixing. Apparently, the US government agrees -- and found enough evidence to go after the publishers and Apple for price fixing. There are settlement talks ongoing, but if they fall through, the government is likely to sue. This probably means that we'll start seeing some lower prices on ebooks. Of course, the stupid thing is that these super high ebook prices have probably hurt the market more than helped. Lots of indie authors have experimented with ebook pricing, and found that the sweet spot for maximizing revenue is often under $5. So while big publishers may have been getting more per sale, it seems likely they were leaving a ton of money on the table by limiting the size of their ebook market with prices that were just too high.Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.
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Filed Under: agency model, antitrust, ebooks, price fixing, pricing, wholesale
Companies: amazon, apple
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How long until someone says that the drop in price means revenues are going down due to piracy?
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Here in the Uk, I find that I sometimes can't get a signal, but my mate, who's with a different provider can.
I just wish all the operators would get together and come to an agreement to share their masts.
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Response to: silverscarcat on Mar 9th, 2012 @ 2:00pm
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I just finished listening to your song "Stranglehold" on youtube I was first introduced to this great tune by .. the RADIO..
I like your music Mr Nugent ... I thin I'll got buy an album ...
cheers
mark
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Apple isn't helping their case by their posturing either. So my bet is on medium level smackdown.
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The DOJ will not do a thing that will seriously hurt Israel or the world wide ponzi scheme we have come to expect as normal.
APPL to the moon
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The article is about Apple and the publishers colluding on actions which are anti-competitive. Do you have anything relevant to say about that?
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Plus this comment has nothing to do with the story about Apple and book publishers colluding to fix prices. This problem exists with Amazon, Sony, and all of the other ebook makers. Nothing to do with China or working conditions.
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But then the industry's view on SOPA/Copyright has little to do with the free market - I'm surprised SOPA didn't incorporate price fixing right into the bill.
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Don't worry, Mike. I'm sure they'll start blaming piracy increasingly more for their pricing failure, just like the movie and music industries have.
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EVERYTHING in America is a conspiracy, they are all out to "get you!!"...
also it would be a "Cartel" not a conspiracy...
if your Government does "sue" (??) a group to force them to conform to a certain price, that is "price fixing".
In the free world you are allowed to vary the price of your product dependent on what you believe the market will bear.
That is a fundamental principle of economics, Masnick do you know what that word means ?
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Can't have it both ways. Give them a monopoly and reasonably regulate it or take away their monopoly privileges.
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eBook price fixing
The publishers make far far more on an eBook than a paper book. Yes there are constant costs of editing which is the same although it seems to be getting much sloppier recently. But there are huge costs that eBooks don't incur: the obvious is printing and the publishers aver that it is minor (given the low quality of even hard backs today that may be so), but there is transportation, promotion (extra discounts on best sellers etc.), cataloging and inventory, shrinkage; none of which apply to eBooks. Yes there is the cost of format conversion but there are apps for that and many are free.
Boycott Apple!
The publishers are hurting themselves and their authors. If I find an interesting eBook
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And I agree with you fully that editing seems to be much sloppier now. I'm far from being a grammar nazi but in the average e-book you'll encounter a sizeable amount of grammmar- and spelling mistakes. It does take away from the experience...
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Re: eBook price fixing
And I agree with you fully that editing seems to be much sloppier now. I'm far from being a grammar nazi but in the average e-book you'll encounter a sizeable amount of grammmar- and spelling mistakes. It does take away from the experience...
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Relevant to my interests
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