Remember the good old days when Amazon and its Kindle device dominated the e-book market and prices for e-books were low? Something has happened since then, a
change in the marketplace that e-book consumers are all too familiar with. The price of e-books has risen as new competition has entered the business.

Seems strange, doesn’t it? Competition is supposed to drive prices down, not up. So what happened?

According to a class action lawsuit recently filed in the US District Court in the Northern District of California price fixing is the culprit. The complaint alleges that
Apple Computer, maker of the iPad, came along late to the party and conspired with book publishers (HarperCollins, Hachette, Simon & Schuster, Macmillan and Penguin)
to raise prices before Amazon and its new disruptive technology could cannibalize the book sellers existing pricing models any further.

Coordinated action among the publishers and Apple is alleged. Whether the plaintiffs can prove the defendants violated US antitrust law remains to be seen. But one
thing is known. The price of best selling e-books is now as much as 50% higher than it was back in the heady days of late 2007 and 2008 when Amazon’s Kindle was
blazing the trail.

Schein & Cai, advises high tech and other companies in the Silicon Valley and beyond, including San Jose, Santa Clara, Mountain View, Sunnyvale, Morgan Hill,
Oakland, San Francisco, Palo Alto, San Mateo, Santa Cruz, South San Francisco, Daly City, Cupertino, Saratoga and Emeryville.
Find Schein & Cai at www.sacattorneys.com.

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