Amazon must face authors' lawsuit over audiobook distribution, US judge rules

Amazon.com must face a lawsuit by independent authors accusing the e-commerce giant of monopolising the retail market for audiobooks and causing them to overpay for the distribution of their works, a federal judge ruled on Wednesday.

U.S. District Judge Jennifer Rochon in the federal court in Manhattan rejected for now Amazon's bid to dismiss the proposed class action by author Christine DeMaio, who publishes under the name CD Reiss.

Reiss sued last year, alleging Amazon’s audiobooks unit Audible violated antitrust law by charging higher distribution fees for independent and self-published writers who decline to participate in a program that makes Amazon the exclusive distributor for books on Audible for 90 days.

The program offers self-published authors 40% royalties for book distribution, compared with 25% for authors who chose non-exclusive, competitive distribution.

Amazon and Audible did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Amazon has denied any wrongdoing, saying the audiobook market is “healthy and competitive.”

Steve Berman, a lead attorney for Reiss, on Wednesday said they welcomed Rochon’s order and looked forward to the next phase of the litigation.

Audible is the world’s largest audiobook retailer, accounting for more than 60% of domestic purchasing compared with about 20% for Apple, according to the lawsuit.

Amazon, in seeking dismissal of the lawsuit, said Reiss had shown no evidence that Audible’s program had induced any authors to sign an exclusive deal.

Amazon also told Rochon that it was lawful for the company to spend more resources promoting its exclusive content than on other titles.

The lawsuit seeks more than $5 million in damages and class action status for thousands of authors.