Amazon Files to Dismiss BookLocker’s Lawsuit re BookSurge
August 5, 2008 by Anne Wayman
Filed under Jobs
(www.thegoldenpencil.com)
On July 31, 2008, BookLocker filed their response to Amazon’s expected motion to dismiss BookLocker’s suit against the online retailer for its insistence self-publishers use Amazon owned BookSurge to receive preferential treatment on the virtual bookstore. The announcement was made to the blogosphere on Angela Hoy’s Amazon BookSurge Antitrust Lawsuit Clearinghouse blog.
This is the blog to read if you want to really understand the issues. There are links to of BooklLocker’s original complaint, Amazon’s motion to dismiss and to BookLocker’s response, all in one place. It will take some reading, but it’s worth it.
For example, footnote 4 on BookLocker’s response states: “…on March 26, 2008, Amazon representative John Clifford notified Plaintiff that Amazon would only continue to sell Plaintiff’s POD books through the Direct Amazon Sales Channel if Plaintiff agreed to print its books through Amazon’s printing service, BookSurge, rather than Lightning Source.”
As far as I’m concerned, that cuts right to the core of this issue. Amazon is out of line and trying to control not only its sales channel, which it certainly has every right to do, but also create an artificial market for it’s POD printing arm, BookSurge. In my opinion, Amazon has an unfair advantage here and shouldn’t be allowed to force anyone to use any printer, particularly one they own.
What do you think of this issue?
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