U.S. Goes Back to Publishers on Prices

Two years after three major book publishers settled a major civil antitrust lawsuit with the federal government, the Justice Department has gone back to the publishers asking about any recent pricing discussions they may have had with others in the industry, say people familiar with the situation.

The inquiries, made in recent weeks by letter to Lagardere SCA's Hachette Book Group, CBS Corp.'s Simon & Schuster and News Corp's HarperCollins Publishers, have created anxiety in the publishing industry. The inquiries reopened a sensitive and costly issue that publishers thought they had resolved, and raised the possibility of additional constraints on how they do business.

The department's latest move comes as Amazon.com Inc. is dominating sales of both print books online and e-books in large part through its discounting strategy. In the 2012 antitrust lawsuit, the Justice Department alleged that five publishing companies conspired with Apple Inc. to raise e-book prices in response to discounting by Amazon.

Three publishers settled the lawsuit in April 2012 in part by agreeing to let Amazon discount their e-books, with a U.S. District Court judge handing down a final judgment that September. The agreements, for two years, expire later this year.

The first of the publishers to renegotiate contract terms is Hachette, which is currently caught up in a bitter dispute with Amazon.com Inc. over e-book terms. As a result of the dispute, Amazon has delayed shipments of Hachette books and blocked preorders of new titles.

Precise terms being discussed aren't known, although Amazon is seeking a higher split of e-book prices, people familiar with the situation said.

The significance of the Justice Department's latest move isn't clear. The inquiries don't necessarily mean any legal action is imminent or even likely, a person familiar with the situation said.

The three publishers the Justice Department has contacted are the ones who first settled the lawsuit. Two other publishers also named in the suit settled later. Apple went to trial, was found guilty of collusion and said it would appeal.

Hachette's dispute with Amazon continued Monday. Consumers still couldn't preorder such books as "The Silkworm," written by J.K. Rowling under the pseudonym Robert Galbraith. In addition, certain older Hachette titles were listed with lengthy shipment dates, such as the paperback edition of Michael Koryta's novel "The Prophet," which Amazon said usually ships within two-to-four weeks. Hachette has said earlier that it is shipping titles to Amazon on a prompt basis.

News Corp also owns The Wall Street Journal.

Write to Jeffrey A. Trachtenberg at [e-mail]

Subscribe to WSJ: http://online.wsj.com?mod=djnwires