Court Allows ABA and B&N Amicus Brief in DOJ Case

On Monday, August 6, in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, Judge Denise Cote allowed the joint request by the American Booksellers Association and Barnes & Noble to file an amicus brief [1] in regard to the Department of Justice’s (DOJ) proposed consent decree affecting publishers’ pricing of e-books and the agency model. However, having previously set a five-page limit on responses to the government’s filings, Judge Cote ruled that the motion petitioning the court to allow the amicus filing, which consisted of five pages of substantive arguments, would serve as their submission and that the court would not accept any additional material from ABA and B&N.

Under the Department of Justice’s proposed consent decree, which would affect the publishers Hachette, HarperCollins, and Simon & Schuster, the three publishers would be forced to terminate their current agency agreements with ABA bookstore members and Barnes & Noble. The decree would restrict the publishers from entering similar agency agreements for two years.

On Tuesday, the court rejected a request from Apple, which is fighting the government’s claims of collusion in setting e-book prices, that it be allowed to file a 10-page document, instead of five, to set forth its views of the “substantive deficiencies in the proposed settlement.” Apple contended that the five pages allowed were insufficient and also asked for a hearing on the settlement.

The court said on Tuesday that it will inform the parties in the case whether either oral arguments or a hearing on the motion would be allowed after the motion is fully submitted.

ABA has a request pending to participate if the court allows a public hearing.