The US Department of Justice and Hachette, Harper Collins and Simon & Schuster have settled an anti-trust lawsuit about the price fixing of kindle books. It still has to be approved by a judge, but this morning Amazon sent out an email about the settlement. The current estimate is that between $0.30 and $1.32 per book will be credited to your Amazon account for each book you purchased between April 2010 and May 2012 (or you can request a check.)
I have no idea how much that will add up for me, but I buy a lot of books. Because this is a suit by the Dept of Justice and not a class action suit, the majority of the settlement will not go to lawyer fees.
Here is the compete text of the email that I received:
| Kindle Customer,
We have good news. You are entitled to a credit for some of your past e-book purchases as a result of legal settlements between several major e-book publishers and the Attorneys General of most U.S. states and territories, including yours. You do not need to do anything to receive this credit. We will contact you when the credit is applied to your Amazon.com account if the Court approves the settlements in February 2013. Hachette, Harper Collins, and Simon & Schuster have settled an antitrust lawsuit about e-book prices. Under the proposed settlements, the publishers will provide funds for a credit that will be applied directly to your Amazon.com account. If the Court approves the settlements, the account credit will appear automatically and can be used to purchase Kindle books or print books. While we will not know the amount of your credit until the Court approves the settlements, the Attorneys General estimate that it will range from $0.30 to $1.32 for every eligible Kindle book that you purchased between April 2010 and May 2012. Alternatively, you may request a check in the amount of your credit by following the instructions included in the formal notice of the settlements, set forth below. You can learn more about the settlements here: www.amazon.com/help/agencyebooksettlements In addition to the account credit, the settlements impose limitations on the publishers’ ability to set e-book prices. We think these settlements are a big win for customers and look forward to lowering prices on more Kindle books in the future. Thank you for being a Kindle customer. The Amazon Kindle Team |
Related articles
- Ebook Price Fixing Settlement Results In Some Lower Prices (bookwi.se)
- US ebook customers to receive compensation in price-fixing lawsuit (guardian.co.uk)
- States reach $69 million settlement with three publishers in e-book price fixing case (engadget.com)
