The sale of the Kindle might be on fire but that doesn’t mean that Amazon has any plans on being nice to anyone whop wants to make third party accessories for it; or so it would seem if the lawsuit from M-Edge Accessories is any indication.
According the the company, who manufactures sleeves and protective cases for e-readers, Amazon is guilty of patent infringement, unfair competition, intentional interference with contracts and false advertising.
The lawsuit was filed last month in federal court in Maryland and first reported about in today’s Wall Street Journal and says that Amazon has been demanding an increased commission rate on Kindle cases and accused of threatening to “de-list” M-Edge from its retail store if they didn’t agree.
From the suit:
In February of 2010, Amazon’s Marine called M-Edge and stated that despite the existing contract terms, M-Edge had to retroactively pay the difference between the 8% fee and the 25% fee for all of January, 2010. That amount was approximately $600,000; a sizable sum to M-Edge. M-Edge refused, pointing to its existing, three-year contract which it had just signed in November of 2009. Marine replied that Amazon was “disappointed”, and stated that there would be “ramifications” resulting from M-Edge’s refusal.
GeekWire has the full text of the suit.
