The DOJ has sued Apple and 5 other publishers accusing them of colluding to increase the prices of ebooks. Read more in the WSJ and the Huffington Post. While the case is about ebooks in general, we are hoping that it will eventually spill over into text books too.
As MBA tutors, we empathize with the students cost burden. With an already high cost of education (tuition, living, etc) paying $150 for text books really really bothers students. Especially when they find that in 3 or 6 months, these student may never use the book again!
This case is alleging that these publishers met in private dinning rooms to discuss ways in which they can sell ebooks higher in response to Amazon selling them at $9.99 a piece. One wonders what actions cause the price of text books to stay so high!