New Mission: Put it in the Feds' Hands

We received a comment from the Washington state Attorney General's Media Relations Manager (it can be read by clicking the Comments link beneath the last blog post). She said that they had received many complaints and that Amazon had been asked to respond. Victory (sort-of)! However, she also said the following:

If it is determined that the markets involved are national in scope, it may be more appropriate to refer this matter to one of the federal antitrust agencies for review.

Therefore, we think the next it makes sense to start over, now directing our emails toward the Department of Justice. The form below sends an email to the Antitrust Division of the Department of Justice that is almost exactly the same as the one used for Washington state.

Name:

Email:

Personalized Content for Message:


Type the following verification code into the box:

If you would like to contact the Dept. of Justice directly, here is the info:

E-mail

antitrust.complaints@usdoj.gov

Mail

Citizen Complaint Center
Antitrust Division
950 Pennsylvania Ave., NW
Room 3322
Washington, DC 20530

Phone

1-888-647-3258 (toll free in the U.S. and Canada) or 202-307-2040

Please Respond to the State of Washington

Today we received an email from the Washington state's attorney general's office with the following text:

In order to properly process your complaint, we will need you to fill out the attached complaint form and provide us further information. I have also attached the link to our online form from our website which contains the same form for a speedier transmittal.

https://fortress.wa.gov/atg/formhandler/ago/AntitrustComplaint.aspx

So it looks like to "officially" submit a complaint, you have to use the form on their site. So now we ask that you please use the above URL to submit your compliant (although you can certainly feel free to continue using our email form as well). This issue seems to be dying down considerably, and no action has been taken. If you care about this, you need to continue to help us make noise. Otherwise, Amazon will win...and independent authors and publishing companies will lose.

Write the Government About Amazon's Illegal Activity - We've Made it Easy!

Want to make a difference in the fight to stop Amazon.com's anti-competitive activities? Amazon isn't going to pay much attention to you or me...but they will listen to antitrust lawyers of the state of Washington. We've made it easy to let Washington state's government know that you do not approve of what Amazon is doing. Just type your name and email address in the boxes below and click Submit to send an email to monopoly@atg.wa.gov. The text contained in the email is below the form. You can also add your own personalized text to the message with the text box labeled Personalized Message. The Washington state Attorney General's web site states that they recommend including an address and phone number, so you might want to at least put that information in the Personalized Message text box. If you would like to submit a more detailed complaint, please use the form at the following URL: https://fortress.wa.gov/atg/formhandler/ago/AntitrustComplaint.aspx

SORRY, THIS FORM HAS BEEN DISABLED. THE WASHINGTON STATE ATTORNEY GENERAL HAS MADE UP ITS MIND NOT TO PURSUE THIS MATTER, SO THERE IS NO POINT IN CONTINUING TO CONTACT THEM.

Name:

Email:

Personalized Message:


Type the following verification code into the box:

To whom it may concern:

I have great concern about actions currently being taken by Amazon.com. Amazon has traditionally made its platform open to independent authors using publish-on-demand (POD) services provided by numerous companies. Now, Amazon is moving to exclude any author who does not use Amazon's own POD service, Booksurge. Many, many authors have had problems with Booksurge, including not getting paid. In addition, authors who do make the transition will be forced to charge more in order to cover the costs of using Amazon's printing services in addition to the fees Amazon charges for selling products on its web site. To force all indepenent authors to use a single, inferior service, a service owned by the same company providing the marketplace, that will also result in higher prices for consumers, seems to be a good fit for the following anti-competitive activity described on your web site:

Business mergers and monopolistic practices that would result in reduced competition and harm to consumers.

Amazon controls such a large portion of the print-on-demand book market that by forcing authors to use its print-on-demand service, it is reducing the number of POD options to one. The harm to consumers comes in the form of products of poorer quality (as evidenced by the large number of complaints about the Booksurge service) and higher prices.

I respectfully ask that you take a serious look at this new practice by Amazon.com and make a fair judgement about whether or not the company is in violation of the antitrust provisions of Washington's Unfair Business Practices-Consumer Protection Act.

Sincerely,

[Your name]

If you'd like to contact the Washington state Attorney General directly, here is the contact info:

Office of the Attorney General, Antitrust Division
800 Fifth Avenue, Suite 2000
Seattle, WA 98104-3188
Telephone: 206-587-5510
Fax: 206-464-6338
monopoly@atg.wa.gov
http://www.atg.wa.gov/Antitrust/default.aspx

7 Really Good Reasons to Boycott Amazon.com

There have been a lot of sort-of timid posts and articles about Amazon's initiative to force self-published authors to use its Booksurge service. This is not one of them. So here are seven really good reasons to boycott Amazon:

1. Amazon is being anti-competition and anti-free market. Look, I'm a free market kind of guy, and you could certainly argue that in the name of capitalism Amazon has the right to do whatever it wants. But the fact is, Amazon is about to do major damage to the self-publishing movement. It has put itself in the position to basically be able to put lots of authors and small publishing companies out of business. There's nothing free market about that.

2. Amazon is being un-American and anti-free speech. If Amazon is allowed to force publishers to use its service to sell books, how long will it be before Amazon begins trying to control the content of those books?

3. Ultimately, monopolies are bad for consumers. If Amazon is allowed to continue at its present pace, eventually it will be impossible to compete against. When there is only one game in town, the owner of that game gets to make all the rules.

4. Self-published books are going to be more expensive. Publishers using the Booksurge service will now have to pay Booksurge its fee AS WELL AS a very large percentage of the sales price to Amazon. To stay afloat, self-publishers are going to have to charge more.

5. Amazon has poor customer service policies, such as forcing consumers to pay shipping costs for defective merchandise returned to market sellers. Or putting resellers' accounts "under review" and not making payment on merchandise sold for weeks, even after merchandise has been shipped and approved by customers. To learn more, check out this site: http://www.consumeraffairs.com/online/amazon.html

6. Amazon doesn't need your money. The company's sales for the fourth quarter of 2007 totaled $5.7 billion. It's time to spread the wealth around a bit.

7. There are other alternatives. Amazon isn't the only place to buy books and other merchandise. I just bought $80 worth of books from barnesandnobel.com and got a great price on each one. There are also hundreds, if not thousands, of other sites where you can buy books, music and electronics.

Your life will not be made any more difficult by not using Amazon.com, so why not shop elsewhere and help us make a statement that we will not be bullied by giant corporations attempting to become monopolies?