Penguin and Macmillan blast U.S. DOJ, deny e-book ‘price fixing’ allegations

“The government’s complaint ‘piles innuendo on top of innuendo.’ It is based ‘entirely on the little circumstantial evidence it was able to locate.’ And it ‘sides with a monopolist,” Julie Bowman reports for The New York Times. “These arguments were part of a response by two publishers, Penguin Group USA and Macmillan, to a Justice Department lawsuit filed in April that accused five major publishing houses of conspiring with Apple to fix the price of e-books. Three of the publishers, Simon & Schuster, HarperCollins and the Hachette Book Group, denied violating antitrust laws but agreed last month to settle with the government.”

Bowman reports, “Penguin and Macmillan, which declined to settle, filed responses in United States District Court in New York on Tuesday, not only denying that they had fixed prices but also taking direct aim at Amazon, the online retailer that has emerged as a significant threat to the longstanding business model for publishers. In its 74-page response, Penguin called Amazon ‘“predatory’ and a ‘monopolist’ that treats books as ‘widgets.’ It asserted that Amazon, not Penguin, was the company engaging in anticompetitive behavior, to the detriment of the industry.”

“In Macmillan’s 26-page response, it said, ‘Absent any direct evidence of conspiracy, the government’s complaint is necessarily based entirely on the little circumstantial evidence it was able to locate during its extensive investigation, on which it piles innuendo on top of innuendo, stretches facts and implies actions that did not occur and Macmillan denies unequivocally.’ …Apple filed its own response to the lawsuit last week, denying that it was part of a conspiracy. In its filing, Apple also referred to Amazon, saying that the government was siding with ‘monopoly, rather than competition.’”

Read more in the full article here.

Related articles:
Apple files legal response to e-book class-action suit – May 30, 2012
Apple to DOJ: Bite me; U.S. Justice Department may regret trying to make its e-book antitrust suit stick to Apple – May 26, 2012
Apple: U.S. government’s e-book antitrust lawsuit ‘is fundamentally flawed as a matter of fact and law’ – May 24, 2012
Video: Steve Jobs predicted or knew of publisher revolt – May 17, 2012
Federal Judge rejects Apple and publishers’ attempt to dismiss civil case alleging e-book price-fixing – May 15, 2012
Court documents reveal Steve Jobs email pushing e-book agency model; 17 more states join class action suit – May 15, 2012
Apple vs. Amazon: Who’s really fixing eBook prices? – April 17, 2012
Apple: U.S. DOJ’s accusation of collusion against iBookstore is simply not true – April 12, 2012
Apple not likely to be a loser in legal fight over eBooks – April 12, 2012
16 U.S. states join DOJ’s eBook antitrust action against Apple, publishers – April 12, 2012
Australian gov’t considers suing Apple, five major publishers over eBook pricing – April 12, 2012
DOJ’s panties in a bunch over Apple and eBooks, but what about Amazon? – April 12, 2012
Antitrust experts: Apple likely to beat U.S. DOJ, win its eBook lawsuit – April 12, 2012
Why the market shrugged off the Apple antitrust suit – April 11, 2012
What’s wrong with the U.S. DOJ? – April 11, 2012
Macmillan CEO blasts U.S. DOJ; gov’t on verge of killing real competition for appearance of competition – April 11, 2012
U.S. DOJ hits Apple, major publishers with antitrust lawsuit, alleges collusion on eBook prices – April 11, 2012
U.S. DOJ may sue Apple over ebook price-fixing as early as today, sources say – April 11, 2012