Amazon/Pearson voucher referred to OFT

As ever there were examples of a little local difficulty, such as last year's editions at last year's prices in a couple of high street outlets. This caused problems for academic shops offering their customers new stock at the new-but-not-improved prices.

Tim Smyth at Queen's was furious to find that some publishers were offering material at a discount on their own Websites—"between 10% and 15%, and waiving postal charges". He described it as "an absolute betrayal of the publisher/bookseller relationship, especially on titles you have subbed in—they can't have it both ways".

Ron Johns at Plymouth was even more upset to find his business the target of an Amazon.co.uk/Pearson voucher campaign. So much so that he has referred the matter to the Office of Fair Trading, which says it will investigate the case. The £5 Amazon voucher, bearing the Pearson Education logo, can be redeemed against a range of Amazon purchases including, of course, books; it was apparently being tested out in five sites—Plymouth and University College Northampton among them—with drops direct to academic staff. While it seems that many of them were binned by the academics, out of loyalty to their terrestrial bookshops, it is the endorsement by such a significant publisher that has riled its customers.

Rod Bristow, president of Pearson Education Ltd, was conciliatory: "It comes down to what one can come up with between publisher and customer. We'd be happy to talk to any bookseller, including Mr Johns, about what we can do together on joint marketing." On a general point, he added: "All the efforts we have put into marketing mean that we've seen good unit sales growth, and we hope terrestrial booksellers have reaped the benefit."