ABA Sends Petition to FTC
Steven M. Zeitchik -- 2/1/99
Hoping to thwart the sale of Ingram to Barnes &Noble, the American Booksellers Association has solicited petition signatures and passed along nearly 89,000 of them to the Federal Trade Commission.According to the organization, 88,794 people registered their dissatisfaction with the acquisition in writing over the holidays. In a statement, the ABA noted that the petition was the "tip of the iceberg. Virtually all of our members with whom we spoke told us that they could have easily continued collecting signatures for several more weeks." But questions about the document's efficacy remain. Lauren Albert, a trade-law expert, explained to PW that while she would "assume the FTC would look at it," she thought that "the case is going to be decided on the legal merits" and therefore the petition probably "wouldn't have a big effect."For its part, the ABA isn't counting out the potential impact. "There's no way of knowing what kind of effect it will have on the deliberations," spokesman Len Vlahos told PW.The ABA stressed that a petition that has been circulating via e-mail has not been sponsored by the organization. "We have no idea who's doing it," Vlahos said, "though we're certainly not against it." Back To News---> |
