The Impact of the Inclusive Access Antitrust Lawsuit on US College Bookstores, Book Publishers, and Educational Publishers

On July 1, 2016, the US Department of Education’s “Rule 164” went into effect. This rule stipulated that: colleges “may include the costs of books and supplies as part of tuition and fees;” the books or supplies must be “below competitive market rates…” And a student may opt out of the program. This...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inPublishing research quarterly Vol. 38; no. 3; pp. 475 - 489
Main Authors Thomas, Alexandra, Dunbar, Emily, Wharton, Robert M., Greco, Albert N.
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published New York Springer US 01.09.2022
Springer Nature B.V
Subjects
Antitrust
Antitrust laws
Bookstores
Colleges & universities
Education
Library Science
Litigation
Methodology of the Social Sciences
Printing and Publishing
Publishing industry
Social Sciences
US antitrust laws
Market disruption
Online options
College bookstores
Inclusive access (IA)
College textbooks
Marketing strategy
College textbook publishers
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Summary:On July 1, 2016, the US Department of Education’s “Rule 164” went into effect. This rule stipulated that: colleges “may include the costs of books and supplies as part of tuition and fees;” the books or supplies must be “below competitive market rates…” And a student may opt out of the program. This procedure became known as Inclusive Access (IA). The legality of IA was challenged in a series of 9 Federal Court cases; the plaintiffs argued that the defendants, college bookstores and college textbook publishers, violated the US antitrust laws. The lawsuits were consolidated into “In Re Inclusive Access Course Materials Antitrust Litig.; 20 MDL No. 2946, DCL; United States District Court Southern District of New York. On June 14, 2021, District Judge Denise Cote ruled in favor of the defendants, making IA legal in the US.
ISSN:1053-8801
1936-4792
DOI:10.1007/s12109-022-09905-1