Amazon is accused of fixing the price of e-books sold on the e-commerce site through competition agreements with the country’s top five publishers, according to a complaint filed Thursday.
The class action lawsuit filed in the U.S. District Court in the southern district of New York alleges that Amazon and the publishers entered into pricing agreements in 2015, which allowed the publishers to increase their e-book prices by up to 30 percent, while Amazon is protected from price competition from other e-book retailers.
The case also alleges that Amazon violated antitrust and consumer protection laws through agreements with publishers known as the Big Five, consisting of Hachette, HarperCollins, Macmillan, Penguin-Random House and Simon & Schuster.
The lawsuit, filed by the firm Hagens Berman, follows a similar class action lawsuit filed by the firm against Apple and the so-called Big Five in 2011. That case ended with Apple settling $ 400 million and paying the publishers millions more, the firm said.
The settlement also prevented the Big Five from having discounts on retailers’ discounts for two years, resulting in lower and more competitive e-book prices in 2013 to 2014, before the alleged pricing deal Amazon and the publishers entered into in 2015. has, according to the complaint.
“Amazon’s abuse of power proves once again that the New Economy has the same old tricks when it comes to violating antitrust laws,” Steve Berman, managing partner of Hagens Berman, said in a statement.
Spokesmen for Amazon and Macmillan declined to comment. Spokesmen for the other publishing companies were not immediately available for comment.
The case was filed the same week, Connecticut Attorney General William Tong (D) said his office is conducting an “active and ongoing investigation into Amazon’s monitoring” of “potentially competitive terms in their e-books” distribution agreements with certain publishers. ‘
Connecticut was one of the states that previously filed a lawsuit against Apple over competition in e-book sales. The Justice Department also sued Apple in 2012 for colluding with major publishers over the price of e-books.
The state-led investigation into Amazon’s e-book industry is one of many antitrust investigations facing the e-commerce giant, including state-led and federal efforts.