Does the Agency Pricing Lawsuit Have Merit?

The class-action suit, which would represent anyone who has bought an e-book published by a major publisher since the agency model was implemented by that publisher, "seeks damages for the purchase of e-books, an injunction against pricing e-books with the agency model and forfeiture of the illegal profits received by the defendants as a result of their anticompetitive conduct, which could total tens of millions of dollars," Hagens Berman stated in its press release.

While many believe that consumers already have come to expect discounted prices for e-books, and that Amazon had set a precedent with its $9.99 e-book pricing, a number of e-books priced higher were on last week's 10 best-sellers lists' for Barnes & Noble, The New York Times (fiction and nonfiction) and even Amazon. James Patterson and Michael Ledwidge's "Now You See Her," priced for the Kindle at $12.99, ranked No. 4 on Amazon's top-sellers list, and at No. 6 on Barnes & Noble's list (priced the same for the Nook). "A Stolen Life" by Jaycee Dugard, priced at $11.99, ranked at No. 5 on Amazon's list, and at No. 3 on Barnes & Noble's list of top sellers. Six of The New York Times' 10 e-book best-sellers last week in fiction were priced above $9.99.