A group of textbook publishers sued Shopify yesterday over pirated materials.
Some background: The five publishers—Pearson, Elsevier, Macmillan, Cengage, and McGraw Hill—dominate over 80% of the textbook market. Their combined market power has contributed to a decrease in competition in the textbook market.
- Textbook prices have jumped 88% from 2006 to 2016, and are often some of the most expensive school supplies university students pay for.
What happened: The five publishers filed a lawsuit against Shopify that includes damages of over $500 million yesterday.
- The publishers claimed to have told Shopify to delist pirated test materials and textbooks from their stores for years. They say that Shopify continues to let such stores use its e-commerce platform.
- Meanwhile, Shopify says it regularly reviews stores for copyright violations and quickly takes down stores that sell pirated material.
The impact: The publishers are worried that pirated materials will impact their businesses, and they may have a point: copies of textbooks can be found online for free or in online forums for as little as $5, which hurts publishers’ bottom line.
.png)