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Sargent denied he colluded with competitors to change Macmillan’s pricing. "After days of thought and worry, I made the decision on January 22nd, 2010, a little after 4:00 AM, on an exercise bike in my basement. It remains the loneliest decision I have ever made, and I see no reason to go back on it now," he wrote.
At the heart of the e-book pricing debate is the industry’s ongoing concern about Amazon. Publishers see the "agency model" as their best, short-term hope against preventing the online retailer from dominating the e-book market and driving down the price of books to a level unsustainable for publishers and booksellers.
What the agency model achieved was to shift the power for setting retail prices on e-books from the retailer — in this case primarily Amazon — to the alleged conspirator publishers, who then exerted pressure on Amazon to comply with the higher prices. The alleged scheme applied to New York Times bestselling titles, all titles that have gone on sale in the current year and mass market paperback titles.
Amazon’s $9.99 price for best-sellers was such a deep discount from list prices of $20 and more that it was widely believed Amazon was selling the e-books at a loss to attract more customers and force competitors to lower their prices. Amazon also has been demanding higher discounts from publishers and stopped offering e-books from the Independent Publishers Group, a Chicago-based distributor, after they couldn’t agree to terms.
When Apple launched its tablet computer two years ago, publishers saw two ways to balance Amazon’s power: Enough readers would prefer Apple’s shiny tablet over the Kindle to cut into Amazon’s sales, and the agency model would stabilize prices.
Apple’s iBookstore has yet to become a major force, but publishers believe the new price model has reduced Amazon’s market share from around 90 percent to around 60 percent, with Barnes & Noble’s Nook in second at 25 percent. The iBookstore is believed to have 10 percent to 15 percent.
Macmillan’s Sargent has been at the heart of the dispute. In early 2010, as publishers were trying to get Amazon to agree to Apple’s pricing system, Amazon pulled all the listings for Macmillan books, including titles like Jonathan Franzen’s The Corrections and Barbara Ehrenreich’s Nickel and Dimed. Sargent refused to back down and Amazon eventually gave in.
New e-books from Macmillan and the other publishers investigated by the Justice Department often are priced initially between $12.99 and $14.99, with Amazon making a point of noting that the price was set by the publisher. Ironically, publishers usually make less money off the agency model than the traditional one because they receive a smaller percentage of the proceeds.
Random House Inc. was the only "Big Six" publisher not to agree to the agency model in 2010 and was not part of the lawsuit. But it did agree to terms with Apple last year. Spokesman Stuart Applebaum said Random House would have no comment Wednesday.
According to federal court papers, the settlement agreement with three publishers said that for two years they will not restrict, limit or impede an e-book retailer’s ability to set, alter or reduce the retail price of any electronic book. It said the retailers will be able to offer price discounts and other forms or promotions to encourage consumers to buy one or more electronic books.
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The 15 states in the state complaint are Texas, Connecticut, Alaska, Arizona, Colorado, Illinois, Iowa, Maryland, Missouri, Ohio, Pennsylvania, South Dakota, Tennessee, Vermont and West Virginia. Puerto Rico also joined that lawsuit, which was filed in federal court in Austin, Texas.
The Salt Lake Tribune contributed to this story
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