If You Bought an E-book Published by Hachette, HarperCollins, Simon & Schuster, Penguin Group or Holtzbrinck Publishers aka Macmillan, You Could Get a Payment from a Sixty Nine Million Dollar E-Book Settlement Fund.
Antitrust settlements have been reached with three publishers, Hachette Book Group, Inc. (“Hachette”), HarperCollins Publishers LLC (“HarperCollins”) and Simon & Schuster, Inc. and Simon & Schuster Digital Sales, Inc. (“Simon & Schuster”) to settle an antitrust lawsuit filed by Attorneys General of 49 states, the District of Columbia and five U.S. territories and commonwealths pending in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York (styled Texas et al. v. Hachette Book Group et al., Case No.12-cv-6625) alleging, among other things, that there was a conspiracy of the nation’s top publishers and others to fix and raise retail prices of E-books (i.e., an electronically formatted book designed to be read on a computer, a handheld device including an e-reader or tablet or other electronic device capable of visually displaying books, other than an audio book), according to the State Attorneys General E-book Settlements notice.
Unless otherwise excluded, you are included in the Hachette, HarperCollins & Simon & Schuster E-Book Publishing Antitrust Settlements if:
1. You purchased an E-book that was published by one of the Publishers (i.e., Hachette, HarperCollins, Simon & Schuster, Penguin Group (USA) Inc. (“Penguin”) or Holtzbrinck Publishers, LLC, aka Macmillan (“Macmillan”))
2. The purchase was made from April 1, 2010 to May 21, 2012, and
3. You were a resident of 1) a state other than Minnesota, 2) the District of Columbia, or 3) one of the five U.S. Territories and Commonwealths at the time of purchase. The billing address of the credit card you used to buy the included E-book(s) will be used to determine your residency.
Many of the Publishers have imprints or divisions within their companies that also publish E-books that are included in the Settlements, including the following:
Hachette Book Group Imprints and Divisions include: Grand Central Publishing Division (Business Plus, Forever, Forever Yours, Grand Central Publishing, Grand Central Life & Style, Twelve, Vision, 5 Spot), Little, Brown and Company Division (Back Bay Books, Little, Brown and Company, Mulholland Books, Reagan Arthur Books), Little, Brown Books for Young Readers Division (Little, Brown Book for Young Readers, LB Kids, Megan Tingley Books, Poppy), Hachette Nashville Division (Center Street, FaithWords), Orbit Division (Orbit Books, Yen Press).
HarperCollins Imprints and Divisions includes: Amistad, Avon, Avon Impulse, Avon Inspire, Avon Red Avon & Tempest, Balzer + Bray, Broadside e‐books, CollinsReference, Ecco, Eos, Greenwillow Books Harper, Harper Design, Harper Paperbacks, Harper Voyager, HarperBusiness, HarperCollins, HarperCollins Children’s Books, HarperFestival, HarperKidsEntertainment, HarperOne, HarperPerennial, HarperPerennial Modern Classics, HarperTempest, HarperTorch, HarperTrophy, Igniter, It Books Joanna Cotler Books, Julie Andrews Collection, Katherine Tegen Books, Laura Geringer Books, Lothrop, Lee & Shepard Books, Morrow Junior Books, Mulberry Books, Newmarket Press, Perfect Bound, Tempest, Vida Walden Pond Press, William Morrow, Zonderkidz and Zondervan.
Simon Schuster Imprints Division includes Aladdin, Atheneum Books, Atheneum Books for Young Readers, Atria Books, Beach Lane Books, Beyond Words, Downtown Press, Fireside, Folger Shakespeare Library, Free Press, Gallery Books, Howard Books, Juno Books, Karen Hunter Publishing, Libros En Espanol, Libros Para Ninos, Little Simon, Little Simon Inspirations, Margaret K. McElderry, MTV Books, Paraview Pocket, Paula Wiseman Books, Pocket Books, Pocket Star, Rabbit Ears, Scribner, Scribner Classics, Simon & Schuster, Simon & Schuster Adult Publishing Group, (Division), Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers, Simon & Schuster Children’s Publishing, Simon & Schuster Inc., Simon & Schuster Trade Paperbacks, Simon Pulse, Simon Spotlight, Star Trek, Strebor Books, Threshold Editions, Touchstone, VH-1 Books, Wall Street Journal Books, Washington Square Press, World Wrestling Entertainment.
Penguin Group (USA) Inc. Imprints and Divisions includes Ace Books, Alpha Books, Amy Einhorn Books, Appleton-Century-Croft, Avery Publishing, Base & Hopkins, Berkley Publishing Group, Blue Hen, Blue Rider Press, Boulevard, Brewer, Barse and Company, Caliber, Capricon, Celebra, Celebra Children’s Books, Chamberlain Bros., Charter Communications, Inc., Cobblehill, Covici-Friede, Coward-McCann, Cupples & Leon, Current, Dial Children’s Books, Dial Easy-to-Read, Dodd, Mead, Donald Fine, Donald I. Fine, Duell-Sloan-Pierce, Dutton, Dutton Children’s, Dutton Studio, Eclipse, Elisabeth Sifton Books, EP Dutton, Fast Rolling, Firebird, First Express Paperbacks, G. Putnam Broadway, G.P. Putnam, Gotham Books, Grosset & Dunlap, Grossman, Hawthorn, Heat, Home, HP Books, Hudson Street Press, Jove, Ladybird, Lewis Publishing Co., Lion Books, Lodestar, Magic Touch, Magnetix, McCall’s, Mentor, Meredith, Minedition, Minton, Balch and Company, Modern Age, NAL, Nancy Paulsen Books, New American Library, Obelisk, Obsidian, Onyx, Orion, Pacer, Pamela Dorman Books, Paperstar, Paragraphic Books, Penguin, Penguin Audiobooks, Penguin Classics, Penguin Press, Penguin Putnam Books for Young Readers, Perfect Image, Perigee Books, Philomel, Phyllis Fogelman Books, Picture Puffin, Pied Piper, Pillow Pal, Planet Dexter, Platt & Munk, Playvalue Books, Plume, Portfolio, Powerhouse Productions, Prentice Hall, Prestomagix, Price Stern & Sloan, Prime Crime, Puffin, Putnam, Putnam Berkley, Putnam’s Monthly Magazine, Pyramid Books, Razorbill, Red Circle Books, Richard Seaver Books, Riverhead Books, ROC, Sandpiper Books, Saturday Review Press, Seafarer, Select Publications, Sensation, Sentinel, Signet, Sleuth, Speak, Splashtime Books, Stephen Greene, Stick n’ Lift, Studio, Tarcher Books, Topaz, Truman Talley Books, Two Hearts, Unicorn, Vendome, Viking Children’s Books, Viking Compass, Viking Critical Library, Viking Kestrel, Viking Penguin, Viking Portable Library, Viking Press, Viking Studio Books, W. B. Heubsch & Co., Wee Books for Wee Folks, William Abrahams Books, Windhover.
Holtzbrinck Publishers, LLC, aka Macmillan Imprints and Divisions includes Farrar, Straus & Giroux, Henry Holt, Picador, Tor Books, Roaring Brook Press and St. Martin’s Press.
Under the E-Book Publishing Antitrust Settlement, Hachette, HarperCollins & Simon & Schuster have agreed to pay $69.04 million into a fund to pay customers who purchased E-books published by any of the five Publishers, which money will be distributed if the Court approves the Settlements. Under the E-Book settlement, Hachette will pay $31.71 million, HarperCollins will pay $19.58 million and Simon & Schuster will pay $17.75 million.
If you bought E-book(s) through Amazon, Apple, Barnes & Noble or Kobo, you are not required to file a Claim Form to participate in the Settlements. Amazon purchasers will receive a credit in their retailer account or they can request a check. Apple, Barnes & Noble or Kobo purchasers will receive an email or postcard notice with information about how to activate their credit or they can request a check.
If you bought E-books from Google or Sony or from any other retailer not named above, you are required to complete an online Claim Form. Google and Sony purchasers will need to provide their Settlement ID number (sent to them in an email or postcard), account email address and mailing information when submitting their Claim and will not be required to provide the purchase information for their eligible E-book purchases.
Claim Forms must be filed online or mailed postmarked by December 12, 2012.
For additional information on the E-Book Settlement and your rights and option under the settlement, you can visit the E-Book settlement website at ebooksagsettlements.com, send an email to info@EBookAGSettlements.com, write the E-book AG Settlements Administrator, P.O. Box 2825, Faribault, MN 55021 or call 1-866-621-4153.
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