Court Denies Amazon's Motion to Dismiss BookLocker Antitrust Lawsuit

Independent POD publisher can proceed with its case

By Lynn Andriani -- Publishers Weekly, 8/27/2009 7:52:00 AM

Independent print-on-demand publisher and bookseller BookLocker said yesterday that a court has denied Amazon’s motion to dismiss the antitrust lawsuit that BookLocker filed against Amazon, meaning that BookLocker can proceed with its case. The case stems from Amazon’s decision to make POD publishers use its BookSurge subsidiary to manufacture POD titles if they want to sell their titles on Amazon directly (publishers that don’t use BookSurge will have their buy button removed).

Chief U.S. District Judge John Woodcock Jr.’s 26-page order denied Amazon’s motion to dismiss, so the case may proceed. In a post on his Web site, Richard Hoy of BookLocker wrote, “Among other steps, we anticipate beginning discovery (where we are able to request documents from Amazon) shortly. Although there is still a long way to go, surviving the motion to dismiss is an important first step.”

Added BookLocker publisher Angela Hoy, "We realize we have a long, long way to go with this lawsuit but we are very happy to have won the first skirmish in the battle."

The entire order is available here.