Audible is facing class action lawsuit over charges of not paying authors the royalty payments they deserve. According to the plaintiffs Golden Unicorn Enterprises Inc. and Big Dog Books LLC, the Amazon owned audiobook company does not report the exact number of audiobooks sold via its platform. This, the plaintiffs allege, provides Amazon with an opportunity to underpay the authors.
According to Lawstream, it is the Law Offices of James Scott Farrin and Milberg Coleman Bryson Phillips Grossman PLLC who are representing the authors in this case. As per the lawsuit, the ‘Great Listen Guarantee’ feature of Audible provides subscribers with the chance to exchange an audiobook up to a year after purchase. During this time, the subscribers have the option to go for as many audiobooks as they want without having to pay any additional costs.
However, according to the terms of the exchange offer, it is the author of the audiobook bought as a replacement that gets the royalty payment. With an exchange period that big, the Audible subscribers will have enough time to try scores of other audiobooks in between though the authors of such audiobooks are deprived of the royalty payment. Interestingly, it was a software glitch that brought to the fore the disparity in payments. This provided an opportunity to the authors to see their audiobook sales figures which included returns and exchanges.
According to figures put together by the authors, it could be anywhere between 50 percent and 85 percent of what they would have otherwise received but for Audible’s discrepancy on this. The authors however said these are just estimates since they too don’t have the exact figures to work with. Further details are awaited.
With a keen interest in tech, I make it a point to keep myself updated on the latest developments in technology and gadgets. That includes smartphones or tablet devices but stretches to even AI and self-driven automobiles, the latter being my latest fad. Besides writing, I like watching videos, reading, listening to music, or experimenting with different recipes. The motion picture is another aspect that interests me a lot, and I'll likely make a film sometime in the future.
