Judge dismisses antitrust lawsuit against publishers and college bookstores

A US district judge on Monday dismissed an antitrust lawsuit against school book publishers and booksellers that accused these companies of conspiring to eliminate competition and raise prices.

At the heart of the lawsuit is a kind of program called Inclusive Access. Programs with integrated access, first introduced in 2016, include the cost of textbooks in tuition fee statements and provide students with temporary digital copies of these course materials. The digital materials, while cheaper than new hardcover books, are in most cases more expensive than physical textbooks on the second-hand market. Colleges and universities are legally obliged to give their students the option to decline inclusive access, but in practice many make this difficult. Inclusive publisher access programs were a direct response to the growth in the used textbook market on sites like Chegg and Amazon.

Plaintiffs in the case included undergraduate and graduate students who purchased course materials indirectly through an inclusive access agreement, as well as independent bookstores and online textbook sellers.

The accused were the publishers McGraw Hill, Pearson and Cengage (which together control at least 80 percent of the market for new textbooks) as well as the college bookstores Barnes & Noble and Follett.

Judge Denise Cote concluded that plaintiffs had not shown any genuine conspiracy on the part of the editors. Programs with an inclusive approach, she said, are likely the result of independent responses to shared stimuli. The complaint did not contain any evidence that retailers were also cooperating with each other to reduce trade, she wrote.

“A motive for innovation is different from a motive for conspiracy,” she wrote.

The lawsuit is not the first legal challenge to programs with integrated access. In 2019, Trident Technical College in South Carolina was sued by a brick and mortar textbooks dealer in Charleston for similar issues. Inclusive access programs weren’t allowed until after 2016, when the U.S. Department of Education changed regulations to allow colleges to bill students for textbooks and other materials on their tuition. Proponents of the programs say they allow institutions to negotiate better prices for students.

The defendants said they were pleased that the trial had been dropped.

“Inclusive access has helped significantly reduce costs for students in recent years, while preserving academic freedom for the faculty and ensuring that students have the high quality study materials they need from day one of class they need, ”said Tyler Reed, a spokesman for McGraw Hill, via email. “That’s why more than 1,400 university campuses have started to use inclusive access in recent years.”

“Inclusive Access gives students access to affordable, high-quality digital course materials and tools on their first day of class,” Pearson spokesman Scott Overland said via email.

“Cengage has been and remains a strong proponent of student and textbook affordability,” said Kristina Massari, company spokeswoman, via email.

John Radice, who represents student prosecutors, declined to comment.

source https://collegeeducationnewsllc.com/judge-dismisses-antitrust-lawsuit-against-publishers-and-college-bookstores/