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Bloomsbury promises embargo action

13.07.07

Bloomsbury has promised "immediate action" against any retailer breaching the 00.01 21st July sale embargo on Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. The publisher said it would "vigorously enforce" the signed legal embargo, and insisted that a breach by any one party does not release other retailers from the terms of the contract.

The move follows speculation on the BBC News website that a renegade retailer could grab publicity by putting the final instalment of JK Rowling's series on sale early. The story was also picked up in today's Telegraph.

Bloomsbury said it had an in-house media litigation specialist on secondment from Reynolds Porter Chamberlain, "who is poised 24 hours a day, seven days a week to deal with any breaches." It added: "We have no reason to believe that anyone would want to ruin the excitement for Harry Potter fans, and if such a thing were to happen, we believe that the public would make their feelings known by not buying it from and boycotting such a spoilsport retailer. Millions of Harry Potter fans would revile such commercial opportunism or inefficiency. We wish to preserve the secrecy of the plot for the millions of fans who are looking forward to reading it on July 21st and finding out for themselves what will happen."

J K Rowling backed up the call: "I want the readers who have, in many instances, grown up with Harry, to embark on the last adventure they will share with him without knowing where they are they going." The publisher asked any booksellers who hear of a breach to immediately inform sales director David Ward on 020 7494 2111.

The BBC reported that embargos on previous instalments of the series had generally been observed because Bloomsbury threatened to withhold future Harry Potter books from stores who flouted the rules. This time there was no such incentive, it said. Robert Webb, who has run Kingsthorpe Book Shop in Northampton for the last 34 years, argued that it was "a miracle" the embargo had held in the past. The Telegraph said there was "mounting speculation", though its main source for this claim seems to be the BBC story, which appeared earlier in the day.

harry potter Bloomsbury children's

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