Accusing Amazon of Antitrust Violations, Authors and Booksellers Demand U.S. Inquiry

David Streitfeld, reporting for the NYT:

Five years after Amazon secretly asked regulators to investigate leading publishers — a case that ended up reinforcing the e-commerce company’s power — groups representing thousands of authors, agents and independent booksellers are calling for the United States Department of Justice to examine Amazon for antitrust violations. […]

Among the destructive practices cited by the critics was Amazon’s appearing last year to engage in content control, “selling some books but not others based on the author’s prominence or the book’s political leanings”; selling some books below cost as loss leaders to drive less well-capitalized retailers — like Borders — out of business; and blocking and curtailing the sale of “millions of books by thousands of authors” to pressure publishers for better deals.

★ Monday, 13 July 2015