Macmillan, the last of the major publishers still fighting the
U.S. Justice Department over antitrust charges, says it has
renegotiated its e-book deals with retailers to allow some
discounting.
In an open letter posted on his book-publishing company's
website Wednesday afternoon, Macmillan Chief Executive John Sargent
said the firm is still committed to fighting the antitrust case
brought by the Justice Department involving allegations that
Macmillan and four other publishers plus Apple Inc. (AAPL)
conspired to raise e-book prices.
Macmillan is a unit of Germany's Verlagsgruppe Georg von
Holtzbrinck GmbH.
On Tuesday, Pearson PLC's (PSO, PSON.LN) Penguin Group (USA)
settled its e-book antitrust suit with the Justice Department,
leaving only Macmillan and Apple as defendants in a suit brought
earlier this year. Penguin's decision reflected its need to resolve
the issue prior to its proposed combination with Bertelsmann SE
& Co.'s Random House publishing unit, a move that will require
regulatory approval.
Three other publishers--CBS Corp.'s (CBS, CBSA) Simon &
Schuster, News Corp.'s (NWS, NWSA) HarperCollins Publishers and
Lagardere SCA's (MMB.FR) Hachette Book Group, earlier settled
allegations that they had conspired to raise e-book prices in a bid
to end the practice of selling the book industry's top new titles
for only $9.99 in digital form. News Corp. also owns The Wall
Street Journal and the publisher of Dow Jones Newswires.
Prices on e-books published by the three firms already have
begun to come down.
Mr. Sargent disclosed Wednesday that shortly after the antitrust
suit was filed in April, Macmillan canceled its retailer e-book
contracts and negotiated new ones with the exception of one
contract whose terms hadn't yet expired. The new contracts allow
retailers to discount certain titles priced at $13.99 and above by
10%. By contrast, publishers that settled have agreed to allow
discounting on all their titles.
In his letter to authors, illustrators and agents, Mr. Sargent
repeated past statements that he has decided against settling
because Macmillan didn't conspire to set higher e-book prices and
because he is concerned that rampant discounting championed by
Amazon.com Inc. (AMZN) would seriously damage rival retailers who
would have to follow suit in order to remain competitive.
Write to Jeffrey A. Trachtenberg at
jeffrey.trachtenberg@wsj.com
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