In the U.S. Department of Justice’s case against Apple alleging e-book “price-fixing,” Amazon, whose complaints are believed to have initiated the case, took the stand on Wednesday.
Amazon demanded from publishers “the very same agency terms that Apple demanded and that the government decries as components of an Apple-led conspiracy: A 30 percent commission on e-book sales, pricing tiers and caps, and, yes, a Most Favored Nation clause,” John Paczkowski reports for AllThingsD. “In fact, according to documents shown in court Wednesday — documents that Amazon fought aggressively to keep out of the public eye — the company’s MFN’s were at times even more favorable to its business than Apple’s.”
“What’s more, during cross-examination Wednesday, Russ Grandinetti, vice president of Kindle Content at Amazon, acknowledged that the retailer adopted those terms specifically to protect its legitimate business interests. He noted that Amazon wanted to make sure it had a ‘level playing field’ with other retailers. Like Apple, Amazon didn’t want to be disadvantaged competitively in the e-books space,” Paczkowski reports. “If that’s a reasonable view, one that’s in Amazon’s own lawful, business interests, why isn’t Apple’s behavior also lawful?”
Read more in the full article here.
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