After news surfaced last week that Amazon was slow in stocking and fulfilling orders on various titles published by Hachette Book Group, it became apparent that another major publisher was in tough negotiations with the retailer over sales terms. Among the issues on the table between Amazon and HBG are details of new e-book terms, sources familiar with the matter said. Industry insiders, however, see this latest fight as symptomatic of a larger, pressing issue: the ongoing battle to maintain a diverse retail marketplace. 

Hachette, along with Simon & Schuster and HarperCollins immediately settled e-book price-fixing charges with the DoJ in April 2012, and the settlements were approved in September, 2012, meaning they will expire this fall. Under the settlements, the publishers were required to allow e-book retailers to discount consumer e-book prices by as much as an aggregate 30% across a publishers' entire list for two years. With that discounting power set to expire with the settlements, the question is whether the publishers can—or want to—negotiate a return to the straight agency model they adopted in 2010.
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