Amazon's Predatory Book Practice? Some Wants The Government To Look Into It
Source: NY Times.
It's ironic that a while back, Amazon requested the Department of Justic to look into possible collusion between Apple and major publishers over pricing and, now, a group representing authors and booksellers are hitting Amazon right back by requesting an inquiry regarding Amazon's possible anti-trust actions.
It really stems from Amazon's battle with publishers that at times become very public with Amazon trying to justify their actions, like removing books from publishers they have contracts disputes with from sale, to the public. It has not worked out exactly as Amazon had hoped. It do appear that Amazon usually end up accepting publisher terms.
Still, Amazon's actions do state to the leverage it has in the publishing world and terms it has offered to independent authors.
One of Amazon's most controverial move is to price its books below market price to drive competitors like Borders out of business. Even now, Barnes and Noble is barely surviving, having to reinvent itself time and time again. Meanwhile, Amazon can make up for book losses with sales of other items and its growing businesses else where like cloud storage.
I cannot decide if it's a lawful thing to do: driving your competiors out of business by lowering prices to destroy their core business and covering the losses with another part of your business. I do kow that it feel wrong.
It's ironic that a while back, Amazon requested the Department of Justic to look into possible collusion between Apple and major publishers over pricing and, now, a group representing authors and booksellers are hitting Amazon right back by requesting an inquiry regarding Amazon's possible anti-trust actions.
It really stems from Amazon's battle with publishers that at times become very public with Amazon trying to justify their actions, like removing books from publishers they have contracts disputes with from sale, to the public. It has not worked out exactly as Amazon had hoped. It do appear that Amazon usually end up accepting publisher terms.
Still, Amazon's actions do state to the leverage it has in the publishing world and terms it has offered to independent authors.
One of Amazon's most controverial move is to price its books below market price to drive competitors like Borders out of business. Even now, Barnes and Noble is barely surviving, having to reinvent itself time and time again. Meanwhile, Amazon can make up for book losses with sales of other items and its growing businesses else where like cloud storage.
I cannot decide if it's a lawful thing to do: driving your competiors out of business by lowering prices to destroy their core business and covering the losses with another part of your business. I do kow that it feel wrong.
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