The US publishers’ association has filed a statement with the Federal Trade Commission on the potential anti-competitive clout of tech giants in the market
For many years, there have been efforts in publishing to launch antitrust inquiries against Amazon. One of the highest-profile events was in 2015—as David Streitfeld’s article at the New York Times will remind you—when an Authors United group led by Douglas Preston made a sustained pitch for the Department of Justice’s attention.
Since then, the major tech companies, Amazon included, have only gotten larger, and efforts both in Europe and the States have intensified to quantify and challenge aspects of those platforms’ capabilities. On June 3, for example, the House Judiciary Committee announced a new probe of Apple, Google, Facebook, and Amazon in an effort to determine whether those companies use anti-competitive practices. And the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has spent the better part of a year in a series of hearings under the banner Competition and Consumer Protection in the 21st Century.
On June 27, the Association of American Publishers (AAP) filed a 12-page statement with the FTC laying out, perhaps for the first time, the US book business’s grievances against Amazon.There are some strong words for Google, too. The AAP sees five key areas of contention, quoted below.
- platforms exercising extraordinary market power in the markets for book distribution and internet search
- the threat to competition when platforms act as both producers and suppliers in the marketplaces they operate
- platforms’ imposition of most-favored nation clauses and other parity provisions that stifle competition, market entry, and innovation
- platforms’ use of non-transparent search algorithms and manipulated discovery tools that facilitate infringement and deceive consumers
- platforms’ tying of distribution services to the purchase of advertising services
Needless to say, there are wide disagreements among people inside publishing, let alone outside the field, about how Amazon’s retail clout and growing control of the market impact the industry and authors, both trade and self-publishing. But the AAP filing with the FTC, written by AAP chief Maria A. Pallante and her team, is a great place to start in getting a handle on just how the industry sees a marketplace bent out of shape.
“No publisher can avoid distributing through Amazon,” the statement reads, “and, for all intents and purposes, Amazon dictates the economic terms, with publishers paying more for Amazon’s services each year and receiving less in return.”
The AAP notes that Amazon Publishing, Amazon’s traditional publishing arm (which releases 1,000+ titles per year), as a retailer-publisher, can detect upcoming releases and offers from other publishers. “Dominant platforms have inside advantages regarding rival suppliers’ forthcoming products and marketing strategies that they would not have if they competed only as suppliers.” Furthermore, the AAP writes, “Dominant platforms are effective at manipulating search algorithms and other discovery tools to steer consumers to their own branded products or away from those of rival suppliers, degrading the quality of their consumer search offerings and stacking the deck for competition for product sales.”
And in one of the most striking lines relating to how Google and Amazon use consumer data, which is rarely shared with partners and vendors: “Some platforms operate at a scale that makes it impossible for suppliers to reach their consumers without them.”
Bottom line: No immediate action, of course, comes as a result of a filing with a government agency on a particular inquiry or probe. Washington, where the AAP is based, moves with what seems glacial speed. But the AAP’s late June document is a good one for authors, publishers, and agents to read. It’s hard to find a completely rational—rather than impassioned—recitation of the dangers of large tech platforms in the publishing industry. Plus, search manipulation gets a close look here, as does the problem of tying distribution to advertising. The filing makes it possible to steer around the shouty folks to get a frank and clear explanation of the industry’s challenges.
Jane Friedman has spent her entire career working in the publishing industry, with a focus on business reporting and author education. Established in 2015, her newsletter The Bottom Line provides nuanced market intelligence to thousands of authors and industry professionals; in 2023, she was named Publishing Commentator of the Year by Digital Book World.
Jane’s expertise regularly features in major media outlets such as The New York Times, The Atlantic, NPR, The Today Show, Wired, The Guardian, Fox News, and BBC. Her book, The Business of Being a Writer, Second Edition (The University of Chicago Press), is used as a classroom text by many writing and publishing degree programs. She reaches thousands through speaking engagements and workshops at diverse venues worldwide, including NYU’s Advanced Publishing Institute, Frankfurt Book Fair, and numerous MFA programs.
