Indep. Bookseller Sues B&N, Borders, Amazon Over
Discounts
Dow Jones Newswires
NEW YORK -- An independent bookseller filed suit Wednesday against Barnes & Noble Inc.
(BKS), Borders Group Inc. (BGP) and Amazon.com Inc. (AMZN), alleging the big booksellers
throw their weight around to get discounts from publishers that aren't available to smaller stores.
The allegations in the suit by Intimate Bookshop Inc., a Chapel Hill, N.C., bookseller, resemble
those in a separate lawsuit filed against Barnes & Noble and Borders in March by the American
Booksellers Association and 26 independent bookstores. The new suit, filed in federal court in
New York, seeks class-action status on behalf of all independent bookstores.
The suit alleges that the big booksellers coerce publishers into giving them discounts and other
favorable treatment, from advertising allowances to payments for prominent display of certain
titles, that aren't given or even known to independent stores. The result, the suit alleges, is to
damage the smaller stores competitively and force them out of business.
A Borders spokeswoman and an Amazon.com spokesman said the companies hasn't seen the suit
and declined to comment. A Barnes & Noble spokeswoman could not immediately be reached for
comment.
Carl Person, Intimate Bookshop's attorney, says the new suit is broader than the ABA's suit, since
it seeks damages on behalf of all independent bookstores in business during the past four years.
In addition, he said, the new suit extends the allegations into the online arena. Amazon.com and
BarnesandNoble.com, Barnes & Noble's online-sales unit, are named as defendants because they
allegedly received similar discounts, he said.
Independent bookstores have long claimed that they are being discriminated against by favorable
pricing practices that publishers give to the big chains. The ABA has reached settlements with six
major publishers over the issue, and sued Barnes & Noble and Borders in California in March in
what it said was a further effort to address the matter.
-Michael Rapoport; 212-227-2017; michael.rapoport@cor.dowjones.com |
