Report: Texas Attorney General Probes Agency Model and Apple

We have suggested several times that the collusive price-fixing scheme known as the "agency model" would sooner or later lead to legal scrutiny.

Now we have a report from Publisher's Marketplace, via Teleread, that "the anti-trust division of the Texas Attorney General's office has been engaged in its own preliminary questioning ... that appears to focus on pricing practices for ebooks and Apple's entrance into the market in particular."

PM reports that the investigation has been "directed at the largest book publishers and at least some retailers."

 

"Those familiar with publishers' responses have described a range of strategies, from trying to limit the scope of inquiry so that companies are not overwhelmed by compliance to thorough disclosure aimed to assuring the department publishers on an individual basis considered establishing an agency model for ebooks for some time, prior to Apple's arrival on the scene," said the PM report. "Because of the broad scope of the department's requests for information, some publishers are already said to be incurring substantial six-figure legal bills in compliance."