Maine publisher sues Amazon.com

The operator of a print-on-demand publishing business is suing online giant Amazon.com over its decision to limit business to only one on-demand publisher.

Angela Hoy contends in U.S. District Court that Amazon's decision to exclusively use one on-demand publisher runs afoul of antitrust law.

About half of her Bangor-based BookLocker.com's sales are through Amazon and there are about 4,300 potential print-on-demand class members, she said. The lawsuit seeks class-action status, an injunction preventing Amazon from implementing the new policy and monetary damages.

"Amazon.com has a tremendous amount of market power in the online sale of books," Seth Klein, the Hartford, Conn., attorney who represents BookLocker.com, told the Bangor Daily News. "They are improperly trying to leverage that power to dominate the POD market."

A message left Wednesday with Amazon.com was not immediately returned.

Under "print on demand," copies of a book are printed only when an order has been received from a consumer or retail bookseller.

Amazon announced in February that it would sell on-demand books printed by BookSurge, an Amazon subsidiary in Charleston, S.C. Shoppers would still be able to buy on-demand titles through third parties that offer books for sale through Amazon.

BookLocker.com, which has more than 1,500 titles in its catalog, uses Lightning Source of LaVergne, Tenn., one of BookSurge's competitors, to print the books her company publishes, Hoy says. Lightning Source is the largest on-demand printer, according to Publishers Weekly, an industry magazine.

"Authors, book buyers and publisher need a choice," Hoy said.

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Information from: Bangor Daily News, http://www.bangornews.com