Amazon Now Discounting HarperCollins EBooks

Nate the greatest writes "Late last week three publishers and the Department of Justice finalized an agreement to settle the claims that the publishers conspired to raise ebook prices. One of the terms of the agreement was that publishers were going to have to allow ebook retailers like Amazon to set the price of ebooks. Today it looks like the new prices have gone into effect. Amazon, B&N, and a small indie ebookstore called BooksonBoard are all offering HarperCollins ebooks at a discount. B&N and Amazon seem to be using the same price book, while BoB is having a 24% off sale."

Good for Whom?

[Anonymous Coward]

I know many on Slashdot are going to proclaim this as a victory for the consumer because lower prices are always good. Yes. They are. I will never complain about getting something I want at a lower price.

But.

There is a very real danger that the drive to force prices down is going to harm a lot of businesses. Sure, companies like Amazon don't care that much if that happens, but book retailers, who are forced to attempt to make a living off of thinner and thinner margins are going to have troubles making ends meet. Publishers are similarly going to have troubles paying the bills as their margins shrink further and further. And, the eventual outcome is twofold - there will be less and less choice for consumers because retailers and publishers will stop taking chances on titles that aren't obviously going to make their profit by numbers, since their margins are too small and thus we'll lose out on choice. Further, and more importantly, companies will start going out of business because the margins are simply too thin, further limiting our choices.

Now, I'm not saying that prices must stay high but there is a very real concern that prices being driven down is going to negatively impact the industry which will, in the long run, negatively impact our choices.

So, before you cheer this as a victory for the consumer, think about the bigger picture and imagine what would happen if your company was forced to operate on razor thin margins. How much would you be cheering?

(Disclaimer: I've worked for a publisher in the past that ended up going out of business so I am somewhat biased on this subject but I think my point stands regardless of my past.)

additional info very important to this story

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From a different article about this story:

The one place you won't find such discounts, however, is the iBookstore, Apple has opted to fight the Justice Department and go to trial alongside Penguin and MacMillan next year.

Why am I not surprised? Price fixing and monopolistic bullshit even when they don't actually have a monopoly is Apple's bread and butter.