U.S. judge dismisses antitrust lawsuit over college textbooks

By Jonathan Stempel

NEW YORK, June 14 (Reuters) - A U.S. judge on Monday
dismissed an antitrust lawsuit accusing the dominant on-campus
bookstore chains and college textbook publishers of conspiring
to eliminate competition by using agreements to sell course
materials online, known as "Inclusive Access."

U.S. District Judge Denise Cote in Manhattan said a proposed
class of independent bookstores and online textbook sellers
lacked standing to sue Barnes & Noble Education,
Follett Higher Education Group, and the publishers Cengage
Learning, McGraw Hill and Pearson Education.

Inclusive Access requires students to buy one-time access
codes for purchases of online textbooks, which typically cost
less than new hardcopy textbooks but more than used textbooks.

The defendants were accused of using the program to
monopolize and drive prices higher in the more than $3 billion
annual market for new textbooks, while suppressing demand for
used textbooks.

But in a 55-page decision, Cote said it was the adoption by
hundreds of colleges and universities of digital textbooks, and
not the defendants' conduct, that hurt the plaintiffs' sales.

"Any injury to the plaintiffs is due to the institutions
selecting brick-and-mortar retailers other than the plaintiffs
as their on-campus bookstores," the judge wrote. "The harm to
the plaintiffs' revenue and profits, therefore, is not due to
any anticompetitive harm that this lawsuit challenges."

Bruce Steckler, a lawyer for the plaintiffs, declined to
comment.

Cote added that even if the plaintiffs had standing, their
claims would fail because they failed to show an illegal
conspiracy to engage in anticompetitive conduct.

The case is In re Inclusive Access Course Materials
Antitrust Litigation, U.S. District Court, Southern District of
New York, No. 20-md-02946.
(Reporting by Jonathan Stempel in New York; Editing by Aurora
Ellis)