The American Booksellers Association has filed a motion with the Federal Trade Commission seeking to fix a hole in the FTC’s antitrust complaint against Amazon that many in the industry agree needs correcting: that the complaint did not specifically include what Amazon’s practices have done to book retailing in general and to independent bookstores in particular.
In announcing the filing, the ABA said its motion is seeking to intervene with the FTC lawsuit in order to add independent bookstores to the complaint, something the ABA believes will bolster the commission’s antitrust charges against the online giant. ABA CEO Allison Hill noted that when Amazon was launched in 1994, there were 7,000 independent bookstores, but today—despite a recent increase in the number of new store openings—there are only 2,500 stores.
“The ABA believes our motion to intervene will help the FTC’s efforts to stop Amazon’s exclusionary conduct that has hurt small business, the book industry, and ultimately consumers,” Hill said in a statement. “We’re not talking about simply an unlevel playing field; left unchecked for almost 30 years, Amazon now owns the playing field and sets the rules of the game. As independent bookstores’ biggest competitor, Amazon’s exclusionary conduct directly impacting independent booksellers must be addressed explicitly in this suit. We believe the facts we bring to the table will significantly bolster key arguments made by the FTC in their already strong and compelling case.”
Selling books online was Amazon’s first business venture, making bookstores one of the first business segments to compete directly with the company. In the motion, ABA attorneys lay out the impact Amazon's use of deeply discounted books to bring consumers to the site has hurt bookstores. “Amazon has stifled such competition by ABA members by exercising its monopoly power to coerce publishers to accede to its demands for substantial and unjustified price discrimination, enabling Amazon to sell books to retail customers at prices that ABA members cannot match except by forgoing a sustainable margin, or incurring a loss, given the higher wholesale prices concurrently paid by ABA members for the same books,” the filing argues.
A motion to intervene can be made by any party who shares an interest in the outcome of a case that may not be protected without adequate representation by existing parties. “This challenge to Amazon’s anticompetitive behavior impacting independent booksellers has been a long time coming,” said David Grogan, director of advocacy and public policy at the ABA. “No one knows that better than ABA’s members, who, for decades, have persistently called out Amazon’s monopolistic and monopsonistic practices in bookselling. We believe the law is firmly on our side and that our motion will be accepted by the court. As such, Amazon’s anticompetitive behavior impacting the bookselling industry can finally come under legal scrutiny.”
The ABA said that if its motion to intervene is denied, the association has requested amicus status in support of the FTC’s complaint.
First filed in late September by the FTC with the support of 17 state attorneys general, the 172-page complaint alleges that the e-tailer “uses a set of interlocking anticompetitive and unfair strategies to illegally maintain its monopoly power.” The use of that power, the government continued, allows Amazon “to stop rivals and sellers from lowering prices, degrade quality for shoppers, overcharge sellers, stifle innovation, and prevent rivals from fairly competing against Amazon.”
Amazon has denied the allegations and maintains that if the government is successful, consumers will suffer as the result of higher prices.
