After more than two years in the discovery phase, a trial is finally scheduled to begin on April 9 in the antitrust lawsuit brought by the American Booksellers Association (ABA) and more than 20 individual bookstores against Barnes & Noble and Borders Books.

The lawsuit, filed in federal court in California, charges the two chains with using their market clout to bully publishers into providing "secret, discriminatory, and illegal" discounts not made available to independent bookstores, even on orders of the same volume. These discounts in turn helped fuel the companies’ rapid expansion in the last decade.

• To follow the trial, visit the ABA’s web site at for regular updates or sign-up for the ABA Litigation Update, a special daily email publication that will track the trial, by sending email to info@bookweb.org with "Opt-in to ABA Legal Update" in the subject line.
• For background on the lawsuit, see the New Rules web site

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