ABA to DOJ on E-book Settlement: Punish Collusion, Not Indie Bookstores

In his letter to the Department of Justice on the proposed e-book settlement, American Booksellers Association president Oren Teicher calls Amazon a “classic free-rider” and argues that settling publishers Hachette, Simon & Schuster and HarperCollins should not have to drop the agency pricing model as a requirement of the settlement. The end of agency will hurt indie bookstores Elimination of the agency model would “significantly discourage new entry, and will lead to the departure from the market of a sizeable number of the independent bookstores that are currently selling e-books,” Teicher writes. He says indie bookstores were only able