Amazon, major publishers win dismissal of antitrust lawsuits over book pricing
A federal judge on Thursday dismissed two antitrust lawsuits accusing Amazon.com Inc (NASDAQ:AMZN) and five large publishers of illegally conspiring to fix U.S. prices of electronic and traditional books, causing consumers and bookstores to pay more.
U.S. District Judge Gregory Woods in Manhattan accepted a magistrate judge’s recommendations to end both cases against Amazon, Hachette Book Group, HarperCollins Publishers, Macmillan Publishing Group, Penguin Random House and Simon & Schuster.
Consumers accused the defendants of signing agreements that let the publishers inflate e-book prices by locking in a 30% “agency” fee for Amazon on each sale, and guaranteeing that Amazon’s prices would not be undercut.
Retail booksellers, meanwhile, alleged that Amazon had been awarded a “discriminatory discount” on hardbacks, paperbacks and mass-produced books, forcing them to pay higher wholesale prices to the publishers and depressing book sales.
According to the plaintiffs, Amazon commands 90% of retail e-book sales and 50% of print trade book sales, while the publishers account for 80% of both kinds of books.
But in two opinions totalling 113 pages, U.S. Magistrate Judge Valerie Figueredo recommended last month that both lawsuits be dismissed, citing a lack of evidence of collusion.
AMAZON.COM INC. Technical Analysis: Daily Chart
In the daily charts, AMAZON.COM INC. is trading in down channel. AMAZON.COM INC. is currently trading below all SMA.
RSI is in over sold zone which indicates mild bullishness. MACD is currently below zero which indicates bearishness.
Its immediate support is 111.81 & the resistance level is at 117.49.
AMAZON.COM INC. will trade in down channel until there is trend reversal.
How to Trade AMAZON.COM INC. this Week:
AMAZON.COM INC. will follow the downtrend until there is trend reversal. So, remain bearish on AMAZON.COM INC..
