Publisher Says Kindle, Nook Users Must Accept AT&T-style Arbitration

Penguin Group, one of the “Big 5” publishers caught up in a lawsuit over e-book pricing, says customers agreed not to sue them when they turned on their Nook and Kindle devices. The publisher, in a memo filed last week, claims that the device owners signed an agreement—much like a phone contract—in which they accepted that any disputes will go to an arbitrator, not to court. These “no lawsuit” contracts gained traction last year after a divided Supreme Court agreed that phone giant AT&T ( NYSE: T ) could force consumers to waive their rights