Amazon has reached a settlement with the Independent Publishers Group (IPG) over the sale of nearly 5,000 e-book titles in the Kindle Store, closing a three month long dispute.
The dispute came after Amazon is said to have proposed new wholesale licensing renewal terms which could see authors receive revenue from Kindle book sales.
In February, Amazon disagreed IPG’s offer and stopped selling digital versions of titles distributed by the group, which represents more than 500 publishers.
IPG president Mark Suchomel was reported by The Wall Street Journal as saying, "We’ve resolved our differences, but I can’t discuss terms."
The news agency noted publishing terms cover areas such as wholesale pricing, payment requirements, and marketing.
In April, Apple and five major book publishers were sued by the US Department of Justice (DOJ) and 15 US states for alleged price-fixing of electronic books, accusing them of colluding to break the Amazon monopoly in the market.
Other five book publishers include CBS Corp’s Simon & Schuster, HarperCollins Publishers, Lagardere SCA’s Hachette Book Group, Pearson and Macmillan, a unit of Verlagsgruppe Georg von Holtzbrinck and Penguin.
Hachette, HarperCollins and Simon and Schuster have already settled the dispute with the department while Macmillan and Penguin Group USA and Apple are preparing to fight the suit in court.
