Amazon halts Disney orders of Maleficent and Captain America after price row
Amazon halted pre-orders of a number of Disney movies on its US website yesterday in what appears to be another contract dispute, following a pricing spat with publisher Hachette Book Group.
Last night physical copies of Disney titles such as Maleficent and Captain America: The Winter Soldier were unavailable for pre-order on Amazon.com. Amazon blocked pre-orders of Warner Bros movies during a dispute earlier this year, and has also been in dispute with Hachette.
On Friday Amazon urged its customers to email Hachette – whose books include James Patterson bestsellers and the classic To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee – to push for lower ebook prices. Amazon says lower prices would be better for authors, publishers and booksellers.
In a the posting on its website it said Hachette “only grudgingly began to even acknowledge our concerns when we took action to reduce sales of their titles in our store”.
“If we want a healthy reading culture, we have to work hard to be sure books actually are competitive against these other media types, and a big part of that is working hard to make books less expensive,” said Amazon in a blog post.
The online retailer has delayed deliveries, cut discounts, and even removed an option to pre-order Hachette titles such as The Silkworm, Harry Potter author JK Rowling’s second crime novel, which was written under the pseudonym Robert Galbraith.
A group called Authors United ran a two-page ad in the New York Times yesterday, criticising Amazon for halting pre-orders from some Hachette authors and slowing delivery of the firm’s books. The ad was signed by more than 900 writers, including Stephen King and Donna Tartt.
Yesterday Amazon did not respond to a request for comment and a Disney spokesperson had no comment.