Ebook Publishers 'E-void' Antitrust Trial with Settlement Offer

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A federal judge must still approve the proposal, but three ebook publishers have offered to kick in a total of  $69 million to settle an antitrust suit that alleges they attempted to fix ebook prices.

Attorneys general of 54 states and the District of Columbia filed suit in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York, State of Texas, et al. v. Hachette Book Group et al. (Docket No. 12-cv-6625), claiming that Hachette, along with HarperCollins and Simon & Schuster, conspired to "raise the retail price of electronic books"  in violation of the Sherman Act [15 U.S.C. sec. 1] and the Clayton Act [15 U.S.C. secs. 12-27]. The publishers' settlement proposal would reimburse consumers who purchased ebooks from April 1, 2010, to May 12, 2010, at purportedly unreasonably elevated prices, in amounts ranging from 25 cents to $1.32 a book.

If the proposed resolution is accepted by the court, repayment would begin 30 days later. Besides the $69 million to reimburse consumers, the publishers would also bear the burden of legal fees and costs of $7.5 million. Tip of the hat to Courthouse News Service for their coverage of the class action suit.

No Rush to Judgment on Proposed Settlement of Google Suit

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U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York Judge Denny Chin heard arguments this week on the proposed settlement of the class-action suit involving Google's book-scanning initiative, but did not indicate when he would decide whether to accept the proffered resolution reached by the parties in October 2008.

As reported on the Jurist legal news and research Web site (http://jurist.law.pitt.edu), the U.S. Dept. of Justice recently filed a statement of interest requesting that Judge Chin jettison the settlement because of antitrust and copyright concerns. The American Civil Liberties Union also has weighed in against the proposed settlement, contending that it fails to protect the privacy of readers by allowing Google to create "digital dossiers" tracking data such as which books readers search, which pages they read, and how much time they spend on each page.

Google initially was sued separately by the Authors Guild, which sought to preserve the copyright rights of its members, and by a group of publishers, including McGraw-Hill and Simon & Schuster. Under the terms of the proposed settlement agreement, in return for payment of $125 million to authors and publishers of copyrighted works, Google could display online a maximum 20 percent of a copyrighted book's total pages and invite readers to purchase the remainder of any book viewed.

In December, a French court found Google and its book-scanning initiative liable for copyright infringement (see "TUOL" post 12/23/09).

NewsCorp Subsidiary Settles Antitrust Suit for $500 million

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A four-year antitrust battle between News America Marketing, a subsidiary of Rupert Murdoch's NewsCorp that accounted for nearly 8 percent of  NewsCorp's operating income in FY 2009, and Livonia, Michigan-based Valassis Communications, Inc., concerning alleged unfair competition and tortious interference  in newspaper coupon insert publishing and other marketing practices, has ended.

Under terms of the settlement, NewsCorp reportedly will pay Valassis $500 million and News America Marketing will participate in a 10-year shared  mail distribution agreement with Valassis Direct Mail. The $500 million figure takes into account a $300 million judgment Valassis previously secured against NewsCorp in a related action in Michigan state court, as well as pending cases in California state court and federal court in Michigan.

The NewsCorp media conglomerate's holdings include Fox Broadcasting Co., The Wall St. Journal, and The New York Post.