Penguin Releases Pricing Charts; Judge Grants Preliminary Approval for State Settlement

PublishersLunch

Penguin asked for--and now has received--permission to share in the open court docket the previously "confidential" pre-agency pricing data they referred to in opposing the approval of the federal settlement. Even now that the settlement has been finalized, "Penguin believes it is in the public interest to make evidence like this public," they told Judge Cote. "Exhibit A, compiled using historical pricing information from Amazon, shows that (1) the average Amazon price, on a title by title basis, for the majority of Penguin new release eBook titles was higher than $9.99 prior to the agency model." The data comprises three charts, posted at PM.

Separately, on September 13, Judge Denise Cote granted preliminary approval to the state ebook settlement, with the final "fairness hearing" scheduled for February 8, 2013. That means the Book Publishing Stimulus Plan we wrote about in Lunch Deluxe last week won't start until next year, after final approval is entered. Any consumers who wish to be excluded from the settlements and heard in February must file notice with the court by December 12.