Amazon/BookSurge
Antitrust Lawsuit
Campaign

Lawsuit Update
10/24/08

Currently, the case is under preliminary review with a Judge to decide if it will go to court.

If the Judge rules in favor of a court case, expect to see a viral petition push from SPAN, in addition to full print and Web coverage.

When the ruling is decided we will post the information here, and you can still find the official lawsuit Web site, at antitrust.booklocker.com/

For reasons of full disclosure, we would like to mention that we use Amazon.com widgets to run our member bookstore. This system has always worked well for us, and I expect this to continue regardless of our oppositoin to their policy. We also believe, that, in general, Amazon.com is a company that provides important services to independent publishers.

However, SPAN feels that the Amazon's booksurge policy works to profit excessively off of these same independent publishers, and that we can not stand idley by while this happens. Amazon.com may be a company that does many things right, yet their current POD policy is harmful to our industry, and we are working to get them to change that policy.

The Campaign

Recently, the SPAN Board voted to support the class action antitrust lawsuit, BookLocker.com, Inc. vs. Amazon.com, Inc.
In late March, the news broke that Amazon had begun a new policy requiring print on demand (POD) publishers using Amazon’s distribution services to print their books using Amazon’s subsidiary BookSurge.

In April, SPAN announced it opposed the policy and I wrote a letter to Amazon’s CEO Jeff Bezos. I said, in short, the new policy was not in the best interest of either Amazon or SPAN members. Despite public outcry, Amazon has stuck to its new POD policy. This led BookLocker.com, Inc., a POD publisher, to initiate a class action antitrust lawsuit challenging the legality of the policy.

The lawsuit says that Amazon is illegally tying the BookSurge printing to Amazon’s distribution services. According to antitrust law, companies generally cannot require a customer to buy one product or service in order to have access to another distinct product or service.

The Amazon/BookSurge
Antitrust Lawsuit Campaign

SPAN’s goal is to initiate the Amazon/BookSurge Antitrust Lawsuit Campaign to generate public pressure to compel Amazon to reverse its policy. Our plan is to get as many authors, publishers, and organizations as possible to let Amazon know they support the lawsuit and object to the new policy.

Our objective:

• 10,000 signatures on the campaign petition.
  
• 100 writer's publisher's organizations to join the campaign.

We have outlined five ways you can support the campaign on the "How can I help?" page.

Join our campaign and let Amazon know you want them to reverse this policy.

Thanks,

Scott Flora, SPAN Executive Director

1. Sign the Petition. (Petition page)

2. Pass the word along.

3. Write a letter.

4. Request the support of your writer and publisher organizations.

5. Contact the media. (News Release)

Click here for the "How can I help?" page.

SPAN Resources

Executive Director's Letter to members July 7, 2008

Executive Director's Letter to Jeff Bezos, Amazon.com CEO
April 4, 2008

News Release - July 7, 2008

Executive Directors's Letter to Jeff Bezos, August 6, 2008 (with petition signatures)

Complaint filed in U.S. District Court

BOOKLOCKER.COM, INC., Plaintiff, vs. AMAZON.COM, INC., Defendant
The Complaint (PDF Format)

BookLocker's Lawsuit Blog
Amazon BookSurge Antitrust Lawsuit Clearinghouse

Illegal Tying and Antitrust Links

Wikipedia on Illegal Tying

Article on Illegal Tying

Article on Sherman Antitrust Act