Amazon responds to German antitrust complaint, says it wants a larger commission on e-books

The German Publishers and Booksellers Association (Börsenverein) asked German antitrust authorities to investigate Amazon’s actions against publisher Bonnier in the country.

Amazon responded to the German complaint in a long statement. It denied that it’s delaying shipments of Bonnier titles, and said that it is instead keeping fewer of them in stock. It also said that it should receive larger discounts on e-books than it does on print books.

“We are aware of the complaint by the Börsenverein that alleges that we are delaying shipments to customers -- this allegation is not true,” Amazon said. “We are currently buying less print inventory than we ordinarily do on some titles from the publisher Bonnier. We are shipping orders immediately if we have inventory on hand. For titles with no stock on hand, customers can still place an order at which time we order the inventory from Bonnier -- availability on those titles is dependent on how long it takes Bonnier to fill the orders we place. Once the inventory arrives, we ship it to customers promptly.”