Agency

Canada’s Agency eBook Pricing Settlement Will Have Little Impact on eBook Prices

21 January, 2017 // 0 Comments

Yesterday's news about Apple and three major trade publishers agreeing to give up agency price controls in Canada has been misreported in some circles, with one person going so far as to claim both [Read More ...]

Kobo Wins Appeal Over Agency eBook Pricing in Canada

19 August, 2016 // 19 Comments

Kobo has successfully appealed a 2014 consent agreement between the Canadian Competition Bureau and Hachette, HarperCollins, Macmillan, and Simon & Schuster where the publishers had agreed to [Read More ...]

Breaking News: Agency Price Controls Reduce eBook Sales

11 May, 2016 // 19 Comments

There's still no proof that Amazon is behind the return to agency, but evidence continues to grow that publishers have shot themselves in the foot by taking control of their ebook prices. PW noted [Read More ...]

Is Amazon Behind the Return to Agency?

2 March, 2016 // 23 Comments

It was widely assumed that when the Big Five (and later other publishers) secured agency ebook contracts in late 2014 and 2015 that the publishers had pressured Amazon into giving up control of the [Read More ...]

Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Signs Some Kind of Agency Deal With Amazon, Apple, Google

22 July, 2015 // 18 Comments

When I broke the news on Monday that US publisher Houghton Mifflin Harcourt might have signed an agency deal with Amazon, I said that I didn't think it had happened _yet_, and I advised that this [Read More ...]

Did HMH Sign an Agency eBook Contract With Amazon? (Maybe)

20 July, 2015 // 2 Comments

For as long as we've had agency ebook pricing, we've always talked about the same six publishers having control over their ebook prices: Hachette, Macmillan, S&S, HarperCollins, Penguin, and [Read More ...]

Canada Investigates Apple for Possible eBook Pricing Conspiracy

7 July, 2015 // 6 Comments

Here in the US the DOJ may have completed its investigation into the price-fixing activities of Apple and 5 major trade publishers and gone after the parties involved, but Canada is a different [Read More ...]

HarperCollins, Amazon Ink Distribution Deal

14 April, 2015 // 9 Comments

The months-long contract negotiation between HarperCollins and its biggest customer came to an abrupt end today with the news that the two parties had signed a multi-year contract. Few details are [Read More ...]

HarperCollins to Bring Back Agency Pricing as Early As Next Week

8 April, 2015 // 20 Comments

Following tense months-long negotiations with Amazon, HarperCollins is reportedly planning to force ebook retailers to adopt agency pricing as early as next week. Publishers Lunch reports that: [Read More ...]

No, the Canadian Competition Bureau ISN’T Investigating Indigo, Kobo on eBook Prices

20 January, 2015 // 0 Comments

There is a story circulating today that Canadian regulators are now investigating the Canadian bookstore chain Indigo and its ebook partner Kobo "over alleged anti-competitive e-book pricing [Read More ...]

Agency eBook Pricing Will be Alive and Well in Canada Until at Least May 2015

23 September, 2014 // 10 Comments

The major US trade publishers may have relinquished control of their ebook prices here in the US and in Europe but Canada, well, that is a different story. A comment left on my earlier post (thanks, [Read More ...]

AAR Joins the Fray in the Amazon-Hachette Contract Dispute

14 May, 2014 // 17 Comments

Hachette and Amazon's brutal months-long contract renegotiation picked up a peanut gallery commentator today. The AAR (Association of Authors Representatives) has sent an open letter today to [Read More ...]

Canadian Judge Explains Why Agency eBook Pricing is Still Alive North of the 49th Parallel

28 March, 2014 // 10 Comments

No one was surprised when Kobo objected to the end of Agency pricing in Canada, but when the Canadian Competition Tribunal granted them an initial delay it did come as a shock. The Tribunal has since [Read More ...]

Amazon Just Sent Me My Share of the eBooks Antitrust Settlement

25 March, 2014 // 23 Comments

It's been over a year since the last publisher settled the antitrust lawsuit brought by the Dept of Justice, and we're finally starting to get our money back. A new email from Amazon showed up in my [Read More ...]

Kobo Wins Stay of Execution on the End of Agency Pricing in Canada

20 March, 2014 // 15 Comments

Kobo just won the first battle in their month-old fight to keep price competition out of the Canadian ebook market. The Canadian Competition Bureau announced on Tuesday that they were delaying the [Read More ...]

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