Penguin and Macmillan have sharp words for DOJ in responses to eBook suit

Penguin and Macmillan have filed their responses to the DOJ’s lawsuit over eBook pricing in U.S. District Court on Tuesday, May 29. The two publishers deny claims of conspiracy and price-fixing. In its strongly-worded answer, Penguin writes:

A vertical distribution agreement is presumptively pro-competitive. New entry is presumptively pro-competitive. Broader distribution is presumptively pro-competitive. Lower barriers to entry are presumptively pro-competitive. Yet the Government intentionally ignores these facts with regard to Penguin’s decision to distribute its eBooks through Apple and instead sides with a monopolist.

The monopolist Penguin refers to is giant online retailer Amazon.com. Macmillan, for its part, says:

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 which Macmillan denies unequivocally.

Full content: New York Times

Related content: Vertical Agreements: New Competition Rules for the Next Decade

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