A new class action suit against Amazon alleging anti-trust violations has just been filed over the company’s requirement that print on demand publishers use its in-house service BookSurge. Hmm…getting sued by your constituency is not great business practice, wonder if they’ll work that out sooner rather than later?
Amazon’s March announcement that POD publishers would be required to use Amazon’s own POD service BookSurge in order to sell books directly on Amazon’s site predictably rubbed quite a few folks the wrong way. (Technically speaking, publishers can use alternative POD providers, but must then provide Amazon with an inventory of at least five books, and the ability to offer many titles for sale without tying up capital in inventory is one of the appeals of a POD model.) Now comes word that one of those POD publishers, Bangor, Maine-based BookLocker, has filed a class-action lawsuit against Amazon, alleging violations of the “tying” provisions of the Sherman Act…