Amazon Kindle Book Credit - Settlement

[blacksred]

Did anyone else get the below email ?



Dear Kindle Customer,

We have good news. You are entitled to a credit for some of your past e-book purchases as a result of legal settlements between several major e-book publishers and the Attorneys General of most U.S. states and territories, including yours. You do not need to do anything to receive this credit. We will contact you when the credit is applied to your Amazon.com account if the Court approves the settlements in February 2013.

Hachette, Harper Collins, and Simon & Schuster have settled an antitrust lawsuit about e-book prices. Under the proposed settlements, the publishers will provide funds for a credit that will be applied directly to your Amazon.com account. If the Court approves the settlements, the account credit will appear automatically and can be used to purchase Kindle books or print books. While we will not know the amount of your credit until the Court approves the settlements, the Attorneys General estimate that it will range from $0.30 to $1.32 for every eligible Kindle book that you purchased between April 2010 and May 2012. Alternatively, you may request a check in the amount of your credit by following the instructions included in the formal notice of the settlements, set forth below. You can learn more about the settlements here:
www.amazon.com/help/agencyebooksettlements

In addition to the account credit, the settlements impose limitations on the publishers’ ability to set e-book prices. We think these settlements are a big win for customers and look forward to lowering prices on more Kindle books in the future.

Thank you for being a Kindle customer.

The Amazon Kindle Team

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(c) 2012 Amazon.com, Inc. or its affiliates. All rights reserved.
Amazon.com, 410 Terry Avenue N., Seattle, WA 98109-5210.

Reference: 26267360

Please note that this message was sent to the following e-mail address

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Benefits from an Attorney General E-books Settlement Fund

Para una notificación en Español, llamar o visitar nuestro website.

Records indicate that you are eligible for a payment from Settlements reached by the State Attorneys General with E-book publishers Hachette, HarperCollins, and Simon & Schuster. The Settlements resolve an antitrust lawsuit about the price of electronic books (“E-books”). Amazon.com has not been sued in this case. It is providing this notice as a service to its customers.

What the Settlements Provide

The Settlements create a $69 million fund for payments to consumers who purchased qualifying E-books from April 1, 2010 through May 21, 2012. If the Court approves the Settlements, eligible consumers like you will receive automatic credits to your E-reader accounts. The credit can be used on any purchases of E-books or print books. The amount of your payment has been determined based on the qualifying E-book purchases identified by Amazon.com in your E-reader account.

How to Receive your Benefit

Because you are pre-qualified, you do not need to do anything to receive your credit. It will be applied to your account by Amazon.com automatically, and you will receive another email letting you know when it’s available. (If you bought E-books from more than one retailer, you may receive notices with different instructions about whether you will receive a credit or need to file a Claim Form for that retailer. You will have a separate claim for each retailer and you should follow the specific instructions from each one.)

You also have the option to receive a check instead of your credit. You can request a check by calling 1-866-621-4153, or going to the Settlement website listed below, and clicking on the Check Request Option link. Be sure to reference the Settlement ID number found at the bottom of this email. The Settlement website is: www.EBookAGSettlements.com

Your Other Rights

You can choose to exclude yourself from the Settlements and keep your right to sue on your own. If you exclude yourself, you can’t receive any benefits from the Settlements. If you don’t exclude yourself, you can submit objections about the Settlements.

Your written Exclusion Form or objections must be postmarked by December 12, 2012. Please visit the Settlement website for detailed information on how to submit a valid Exclusion Form or objection.

A separate lawsuit against two other publishers and Apple, Inc. continues and is set for a trial in 2013. Your rights in the separate suit are not affected by any action you take in regards to these Settlements.

The Court will hold a hearing on February 8, 2013, at 10:00 a.m. to consider whether to approve the Settlements. You or your own lawyer may ask to appear and speak at the hearing.

For more detailed information:
Call 1-866-621-4153 or visit www.EBookAGSettlements.com
Settlement ID Number: AMtGjVSIax78OMKr/k

[Deleted]

I got it. Not totally sure what it means, but whatever.

[80sjunkie]

I am sure I have not purchased enough kindle books to make this a significant amount of money.

[Kore]

I just got it.

[cjeanette]

I got it. I think I purchased 2 books if that.

[Deleted]

I haven't gotten that.

[ESF]

Oct 13, 2012 10:23:23 GMT -5 @joesther said:

I got it. Not totally sure what it means, but whatever.

The publishers were sued by attorney generals in various states for price fixing. Basically, in the paper book world (and in the e-book world before 2010), retailers negotiate prices from publishers, buy books and set the prices at which they sell to customers. The publisher profit was fixed at what the retailer would buy, and the retailer earned the difference between what they paid to the publisher and what the customer paid. That's why you pay one price at B&N, one price at Amazon, and another price at Costco.

In 2010, when the iPad was released, Apple agreed to a different model. Publishers could set the price of the book at whatever they wanted and apple would keep 30%. The publishers then conspired to demand that pricing scheme from every single retailer of e-books. Which meant that The Help was sold at the same exact price anywhere you wanted to buy it.

That's why in 2010 and 2011, prices of ebooks shot way up, resulting in people paying more for an ebook than the paper version, which is fucking ridiculous.

Price fixing like that is illegal.

So, lawsuits galore. Now, publishers are going to be required to let retailers set prices again, so ebook prices should come back down.

The settlement is giving people refunds for overpaying on the books. Each person might only get a few dollars back, but it'll be millions in payouts by the publishers, plus they'll be subject to monitoring to avoid the gouging in the future, which is what matters.

[twodogsandababy]

Interesting. Thanks for the explanation ESF. I am MM (read Cheap) and only purchase the cheapie books for the most part but have bought a few full price books. I doubt I will get much back but I am excited for prices to drop.

[newhomeowner]

Yes thanks for the explanation ESF! I got it too.

[madringal]

I got it too! I look forward to my $3

[kaylie]

I got it too. I'm thinking I'll get about $10 back =)

[MrsManners]

I wonder if the payout will be based on the price of the book or any book that was downloaded (I assume it's just books by certain publishers?). I downloaded a ton of free or low cost in addition to at least 15 at publisher set prices.

[tauatadan]

Interesting - my partner got such an email but I didn't.

[GailGoldie]

i got it, too. i'll be happy to get anything - but not expecting much.