Higher textbook prices, sales of foreign editions of textbooks in the U.S., increased bundling of products and financial pressures on state colleges all stirred passionate discussion at the National Association of College Stores meeting and CAMEX show in St. Louis last weekend.
Festering for several years, the issue of the sale of overseas editions of textbooks to U.S. students, often at deep discounts, was probably the major complaint of booksellers. Much of the evidence is anecdotal. Although amazon.co.uk is often cited as one of the sellers, it may stand out mainly because of its name; the others are often obscure companies. College booksellers noted that students buying textbooks from overseas often had problems such as wrong editions or late delivery. Many of the sites sell a limited number of textbooks, but their existence reinforces the perception that college stores engage in price gouging.
Marc Fleischaker of Arent, Fox, Kintner, Plotnik & Kahn in Washington, D.C., NACS's legal counsel, discussed several actions taken by the association to address the issue. In December, he said, he sent letters to eight publishers broaching the issue of overseas textbook sale, which the letters called "an increasingly more significant problem for U.S. college bookstores." The letters suggested that the price differences between American and overseas books might violate the Robinson-Patman Act. The letter also said that selling identical books abroad at lower prices while publishers are "publicly stating that domestic prices are due to high costs, could constitute an unfair or deceptive act." The letter recommended that publishers either make prices uniform or "adopt mechanisms, such as territorial restrictions," to make sure textbooks sold abroad aren't sold back into the U.S.
None of the eight publishers responded to the letter. Instead, Pat Schroeder, president of the Association of American Publishers, responded in late January, noting that because of antitrust law, association members can't discuss pricing among themselves. Thus, she wrote, the AAP couldn't address the "factual allegations" made in the letter. But she said that the AAP did not agree with NACS's suggestion that the Robinson-Patman Act may apply to export sales.
Several publishers in the audience defended their decision not to respond directly. As one said, the letter was from a lawyer and included legal citations, so in his company the letter was forwarded directly to the company's legal department. The same publishers said that they did not condone the sale of U.S. textbooks intended to be sold abroad back into the U.S. and urged booksellers to notify them of examples. They stressed that they were taking actions to try to make sure the practice did not occur.
James Panther of Pearson said that "some accounts have taken advantage of the situation" and that the company is "clamping down on them." Stephen Hochheiser of Thomson said that his company is considering clearly marking foreign editions on the cover and said that the regular editions of major textbooks will not be discounted anywhere.
At a separate panel, Schroeder defended publishers in general, saying, "I totally promise you that not one publisher would dump texts overseas... there is not a publisher that wants these books to come back." Like some individual publishers, she emphasized that publishers' contracts with distributors of their textbooks overseas prohibited the sale of the books back to the U.S. "Why would publishers want their own products to compete with their product?" she asked. "We're all on the same side on this. Trust me."
High Prices
Ken Bowers of the University of California at Santa Barbara Bookstore and president of NACS for the past year, noted that high prices have become so unbearable for students that for the first time, enrollment was up at UCSB this year but textbooks sales were flat. "I've never seen that," he said. He observed that most students grumble at textbooks prices in the $60—$70 range, but at $80—$100, and especially over $100, they are "unhappy campers and are voting with their feet. They search for the information on the Internet or share textbooks or copy texts or see what they can get by with." Bowers said that the traditional economic model "will not work after a point—and we are just about there."
