The headlines of Fox Business Flash are here. See what clicks on FoxBusiness.com.
Connecticut is actively investigating how Amazon.com Inc. digital books sell and distribute, according to the state’s attorney general, the latest of several state and federal sins in the business opportunities of the technology giant.
The investigation examines whether Amazon is engaging in competitive competition in the e-book industry through its agreements with certain publishers, Connecticut Attorney General William Tong said in a statement.
GET FOX BUSINESS ON THE GO by clicking here
According to a subpoena issued in 2019, Connecticut has asked Amazon to provide documents related to dealing with five of the largest U.S. book publishers. with The Wall Street Journal.
Amazon declined to comment. A spokesman for Mr. Tong said the company cooperated with the subpoena.
Connecticut has previously been interested in the e-book industry. In 2012, the U.S. Department of Justice in a civil antitrust lawsuit alleges that five major publishers and Apple Inc. collaborated to increase the price of e-books. Connecticut, along with Texas, led a similar legal effort by a group of states.
“Our office continues to aggressively monitor this market to protect fair competition for consumers, authors and other e-book retailers,” he said. Tongue said in a statement.
AMAZON BACK TO THE COMPARED LAW, CLAIMS ‘WILLINGNESS AND UNREVISIBILITY’ TO REMOVE GREAT CONTENT
The publishers quoted in the Connecticut Amazon lawsuit include HarperCollins Publishers, which, like The Wall Street Journal, is owned by News Corp; Lagardere SCA’s Hachette Book Group; Penguin Random House, a well-maintained unit of the German media company Bertelsmann SE; Simon & Schuster, the book publisher of ViacomCBS Inc .; and Macmillan. Penguin Random House has agreed to acquire Simon & Schuster, pending approval of the regulation.
All the publishers quoted in the subpoena declined to comment.
The Connecticut investigation is one of several ongoing investigations into the company’s market power in Seattle. In October, the domestic competition subcommittee completed a 16-month investigation into Amazon and other technology companies, concluding that Amazon had amassed ‘monopolistic power’ over sellers on its website.
The U.S. Department of Justice launched a broad investigation into the market power of major technology companies, including Amazon, in 2019, and the Federal Trade Commission oversees Amazon as part of a broader investigation into the business practices of large technology companies. In addition to Connecticut, California investigators are investigating Amazon’s business practices, the Journal reported.
WORKERS ASK AMAZON WEB DROP COMPARATOR OF POSTS ‘INITIATIVE VIOLENCE’ TO CAPITOL RIOT
Amazon is the dominant U.S. e-bookstore and accounts for 76% of digital books sold in the U.S. in September, according to Codex Group LLC, a research firm for book audiences. Competitive digital book sellers include Apple, Alphabet Inc. see Google and Barnes & Noble.
The e-book market has been controversial for years. Amazon started the business when its Kindle e-reader was launched in November 2007, a launch that offered digital bestsellers for $ 9.99. The discounted offer helped Amazon build market share, but publishers believed it was hurting the industry.
| Ticker | Safety | Last | Alter | Alter% |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| AMZN | AMAZON.COM INC. | 3 165.89 | +45.06 | + 1.44% |
A few years later, Apple started the business when the iPad was launched, with offers that allowed publishers to determine the retail prices of their books. This effectively barred the old model, in which publishers let retailers set prices for consumers, without the publishers’ approval.
CLICK HERE TO READ MORE ABOUT FOX BUSINESS
The Justice Department then filed its civil antitrust lawsuit against Apple and five major publishers. The publishers established themselves. Apple tried, but lost.
Write to Jeffrey A. Trachtenberg at [email protected] and Dana Mattioli at [email protected]