Amazon fails to end lawsuit over print-on-demand books

A federal court judge in Maine has denied a motion by Amazon.com to dismiss an antitrust lawsuit brought last year by an independent print-on-demand publisher, BookLocker.com. The lawsuit, which seeks class action status, takes issue with Amazon's decision to channel all print-on-demand books sold on its websites through its own printing subsidiary, BookSurge. A variety of publishers and university presses use print-on-demand to derive revenue from older, out-of-print books, allowing them to be printed individually or in small batches, rather than doing a large, expensive print run of hundreds or thousands of copies.

Here's the judge's denial of the motion to dismiss (pdf, 26 pages) as well as the original complaint filed last May (pdf, 10 pages). In a blog post, Richard Hoy, the co-owner and CEO of Bangor, Maine-based BookLocker, wrote, "Denial of the motion to dismiss means the case may proceed. Among other steps, we anticipate beginning discovery (where we are able to request documents from Amazon) shortly." He added: "Although there is still a long way to go, surviving the motion to dismiss is an important first step."

Amazon spokeswoman Patty Smith said the company has no comment.

[Via Publisher's Weekly]

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About Eric Engleman

ERIC ENGLEMAN is senior technology staff writer for TechFlash and the Puget Sound Business Journal, covering online retail giant Amazon.com. Engleman tracks Amazon's increasingly complex business, spanning ecommerce, Kindle, cloud computing, and more. He's been covering technology and other industries for the Business Journal since 2003.

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