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Competitor sensitive information refers to the fact that, according to the audit, they have shared future book prices and publication time.
The Authority warns that Bokbasen will be fined NOK 3.89 million, Cappelen Damm will be fined NOK 151.9 million, Forlagshuset Vigmostad & Bjørke will be fined NOK 93.4 million, Gyldendal will be fined NOK 202.4 million. and Aschehoug is fined NOK 50.8 million. The parent company of the publishers is jointly and severally liable.
Disputes
Communications manager Camilla Bruseland in Gyldendal writes the following in an SMS to Dagbladet:
– Our comment is that this is not a final decision, but a warning: we dispute the case and now we will enter into a dialogue with the Norwegian Competition Authority.
Vigmostad & Bjørke owner Arno Vigmostad confirms via Dagbladet that they have received a notification of a violation fee.
– We rejected the assessment before the Norwegian Competition Authority and have requested more access to the documentation on which the audit is based. This warning is a dangerously large pile of paper, and it will take time to read, he tells Dagbladet.
Cappelen Damm confirms to Dagbladet that they have received a notification of a decision from the Norwegian Competition Authority. They emphasize that the warning is not final.
Tom Harald Jenssen, CEO of Cappelen Damm, comments on the case as follows:
– The database has not been used as claimed by the Norwegian Competition Authority, but to inform booksellers and book buyers about planned new publications and an impressive array of previously published books with required and updated associated metadata. We do not recognize ourselves above our heads in the evaluation of the Competition Authority.
– Completely absurd
Cappelen Damm has the following comment on the claim that they, along with other publishers, have used the book database as a tool for price and publication market monitoring.
– For Cappelen Damm, such a description of reality seems completely absurd.
The editor advises that they will have a series of comments on the notice from the Competition Authority, and that through them they will ensure the best possible information on the case.
Aschehoug also confirms that they have received the warning.
– We both do not agree and we are surprised by the preliminary hypotheses of the Authority. The book database is a digital catalog of published and planned publications used by all publishers and booksellers in Norway, and includes publicly known information.
This is what CEO Mads Nygaard in Aschehoug writes in an email to Dagbladet.
– The book base is important for diversity and competition in Norway because it puts 100,000 titles on sale for Norwegian book readers. The purpose of the book database and our participation has never been intended to restrict competition in the marketplace. Realities have been turned upside down, he continues.
Millions smell in court
– harmful
According to the audit, the information exchange has taken place through Bokbasen, where publishers have proprietary interests, its database of books.
“Publishers have purchased Bokbasen’s Mentor Forlag subscription and thus have gained access to share information about each other’s posts through the database,” the Norwegian Competition Authority writes in the report they published. today.
The Norwegian Competition Authority considers that Bokbasen has facilitated the exchange of information and therefore has participated in the illegal cooperation. The audit assumes that the cooperation has been maintained for several years.
– Our assessment is that publishers have consistently entered information about their own publications into the database and knew that other publishers could retrieve this information. The exchange of information that includes future prices is at the core of what is considered detrimental to competition and can lead to consumers having to pay higher prices, says project manager Jan Petter Fedje of the Norwegian Competition Authority.
– We take this kind of illegal cooperation very seriously, which is emphasized by the size of the reported fees, says department director Gjermund Nese at the Norwegian Competition Authority to NTB.
The Norwegian Competition Authority emphasizes in the press release that the assessments presented in the notification are preliminary and that no final decision has been made in the case.
– Businesses have until November 24, 2020 to submit comments on the notification, they write.
Requires stopped book
– rough
– When one imposes fees in such cases, there are separate rules for it. There are three factors to take into account, department director Gjermund Nese at the Norwegian Competition Authority tells Dagbladet.
These considerations are the company’s turnover, the duration of the violation and the severity of the violation, he explains.
– In this case, we are talking about large companies with relatively high turnover. Contribute to the rate. The infringement is serious and, above all, it has been going on for several years, so the duration is relatively long. Together, this adds up to fees of the size we see here.
It stresses that they consider the infringement to be equally serious for all parties, and that differences in turnover and duration of infringement are the reason why the fees are for different amounts.
Raid in 2018
The Norwegian Competition Authority initiated the investigation of book industry players on their own initiative, once they became aware of the practice. This resulted in raids in January 2018 against the five who have now been notified of fines.
– We made extensive seizures during this discovery. We have now reviewed and analyzed them and have spoken with the parties involved. Based on this, we believe that they have acted in violation of the Competition Law, says Gjermund Nese.
Dagbladet updates the case.
