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