a Kindle KDP clause - is it breach of copyright. [X-posted]

I recently - elsewhere - posed a question about a clause in the KDP 
contract; unfortunately someone who claimed to be a lawyer poo-poohed 
it, discouraging others from joining in. ["Claimed" because nothing they 
said showed an understanding of the point.]

KDP has two discounts before payment to authors/small publishers, 70% 
for prices $0-1.99 and $10.99 upwards; and 35% for $2.99 to $9.99.

There are some hard to stomach clauses in the latter; one in particular 
regards the price on which Amazon bases its discount and for payment to 
the supplier or vendor. This effectively says that if the ebook in 
question is sold more cheaply elsewhere than the price at which it is 
offered to Amazon, Amazon will reset the *vendor price* to that sales 
price irrespective of whether the vendor has any control over that 
retailer. This has happened a number of times to my knowledge, including 
selling for $0 and determining that as the vendor price to be discounted 
before payment (or no payment) from Amazon to the vendor.

Now the detail of how they arrive at an alternative price is not the 
issue I want to explore. My question is: does taking that power to 
themselves does Amazon, in ignoring the price set for their system, 
abrogate the copyright vested in the creator or licenced to the 
copyright holder?

Put another way, is it breach of copyright law to alter vendor prices 
unilaterally, and so control the business model of their suppliers?

Joseph Harris


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