Nine years after an investigation found that Apple and the “Big Five” book publishers colluded to fix eBook prices to compete with Amazon, Amazon has now been accused of doing the same.
The lawsuit claims that almost 90% of all ebooks sold in the US are sold on Amazon, in addition to over 50% of all print books. The suit alleges that ebook prices dropped in 2013 and 2014 after Apple and major publishers were successfully sued for conspiring to set ebook prices, but rose again after Amazon renegotiated their contracts in 2015.
Check It Out: Apple Feels Schadenfreude as Amazon is Accused of eBook Price Fixing
Is it that long ago already? When the first time in history, the US federal government sued to restore a monopoly position that had been successfully toppled by a new entrant?
Everyone and his uncle (except the DoJ, it seems) knew that Amazon’s play is to set prices at unsustainably low prices and jack them up to monopoly levels once they have killed the competition. Are the lawyers who enforce antitrust regulations really that clueless?
Apparently.
Anybody want to start a Go Fund Me to hire a skywriter to put WE TOLD YOU SO over the DOJ?