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Amazon is angry that Penguin, Bloomsbury and others are discounting titles on their websites, encouraging customers to buy direct instead of using the online retailer, reports the Times following up on a Publishing News story. There are fears that Amazon may retaliate by regarding a publisher’s online price as the recommended retail price and applying its trading terms to that. Others accused Amazon of having become particularly aggressive lately. One source claimed that the online seller recently removed the “buy buttons” from a book on its website to prevent users from being able to purchase it.
Another publisher told the newspaper: “It’s very serious. I can’t believe they’d be allowed to get away with it under competition law. Forcing people to increase prices seems to me entirely wrong.” And Simon Juden, chief executive of the Publishers Association, which represents up to 140 publishers, added that Amazon was on shaky legal ground. He said: “Terms of trade will have been set up upfront when contracts were signed. Neither side can unilaterally change those. In my view, Amazon would be in breach of contract if they tried to do this.”
An Amazon spokesman said: “It is speculation. We never talk about discussions with suppliers.” He declined to comment further.