Amazon.com Inc is reportedly being sued by a UK-based online bookstore over allegations that the US internet retailing giant cost it sales by appearing to stock its books. The Toby Press Ltd has exclusive selling rights to books it publishes, yet a search for Toby books on Amazon’s sites revealed a message suggesting the firm was out of stock and customers should try again in a few weeks. Amazon has since withdrawn the message, but Toby is suing, claiming the company has cost it potential sales.
Amazon’s European operations have come in for a lot of legal action recently. Nobel Peace Prize-winning Northern Ireland MP David Trimble sued the firm earlier this year for stocking a book that made allegations regarding his past, while Germany’s Amazon.de has come under fire for stocking Adolf Hitler’s anti-Semitic tract ‘Mein Kampf’ – which it has since dropped from its stock.
