Amazon is accused of fixing the price of e-books sold on the e-commerce site through anti-competitive deals with the country’s top five publishers, according to a complaint filed Thursday.
The class action lawsuit filed in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York alleges that Amazon and the publishers signed pricing agreements in 2015, which allowed publishers to raise e-book prices up to at 30% while protecting Amazon from price competition from other e-book retailers.
The lawsuit also alleges that Amazon violated antitrust and consumer protection laws through agreements with publishers known as the “big five,” consisting of Hachette, HarperCollins, Macmillan, Penguin-Random House and Simon & Schuster.
The lawsuit, filed by firm Hagens Berman, follows a similar class action lawsuit that the firm filed against Apple and the so-called Big Five in 2011. That case ended with Apple settling for $ 400 million and publishers settled for millions more, the firm said.
The agreement also prevented the big five from interfering with retailers ’discounts for two years, resulting in lower and more competitive e-book prices between 2013 and 2014, before the alleged pricing agreement that Amazon and publishers celebrated 2015, according to the complaint.
“Amazon’s abuse of power demonstrates, once again, that when it comes to violating antitrust laws, the New Economy follows the same old tricks,” Steve Berman, managing partner of Hagens Berman, said in a statement.
Amazon and Macmillan spokesmen declined to comment. Spokesmen for the other publishing companies were not immediately available for comment.
The lawsuit was filed the same week Connecticut Attorney General William Tong (D) said his office has an “active and ongoing antitrust investigation” into Amazon over “potentially anti-competitive terms in its book distribution agreements.” with certain publishers “.
Connecticut was one of the states that had previously filed a lawsuit against Apple for competition in e-book sales. The Justice Department also sued Apple in 2012 alleging that it conspired with major publishers over the price of e-books.
State-led research on Amazon’s e-book business is one of many antitrust investigations facing the e-commerce giant, including state and federal efforts.