Amazon is accused of setting the price of e-books sold on the e-commerce site through anti-competitive agreements with the country’s top five publishers, according to a complaint filed on Thursday.
The class action lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York claims that Amazon and the publishers entered into pricing agreements in 2015, allowing publishers to increase e-book prices by up to 30% while protecting Amazon of 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 Hagens Berman, follows a similar class action lawsuit, which the company filed against Apple and the so-called Big Five in 2011. This case ended with Apple settling for 400 million dollars and publishers have decided for millions more, the company said.
The agreement also prevented 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 Amazon and publishers pricing agreement was concluded in 2015, according to the complaint.
“Amazon’s abuse of power demonstrates, once again, that when it comes to violating antitrust laws, the New Economy depends on the same old tricks,” Steve Berman, Hagens Berman’s executive partner, 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 in connection with “potentially anti-competitive terms in their e-book distribution agreements with certain publishers ”.
Connecticut was among the states that previously filed a lawsuit against Apple for competition in e-book sales. The Justice Department also sued Apple in 2012, claiming it conspired with major publishers over e-book prices.
The state-led investigation into Amazon’s e-book business is one of many antitrust investigations facing the e-commerce giant, including state-led and federal efforts.