Already in fracas with publisher Hachette, retailer pulls pre-orders such as The Lego Movie to pressure the studio over pricing

First they came for Harry Potter's author, and now they have come for your Lego. Amazon has expanded its trade dispute with publisher Hachette by adding Warner Bros to the list of companies it is pressuring for a better deal.

The online retailer has pulled pre-orders for forthcoming Warner Home Video features, including international blockbuster The Lego Movie, 300: Rise of an Empire, Winter’s Tale and Transcendence.

The move comes as Amazon continues to delay shipments and refuse pre-orders for some titles from Hachette, publisher of Harry Potter author JK Rowling, and home to David Baldacci, Stephen Colbert, David Foster Wallace and others. The retailer is also in another standoff in Germany with the Bonnier Media Group.

The details of the dispute are not public. Amazon is fighting with Hachette over the price of e-books, and analysts speculated a similar dispute could be at play with Warner over pay for digital copies of its movies



None of the parties involved are talking, but it is clear that Hachette and Warner are hoping the popularity of their products will give them the edge in the dispute.



The Lego Movie has so far made more than $462m worldwide, according to Boxoffice.com. The DVD is released on 17 June but doesn’t even show up in a search for “The Lego Movie” on Amazon. It is the top placed item for the same search on Walmart.com.

Boxoffice’s Phil Contrino said he expected The Lego Movie to be “massive”. “DVD sales are falling away to digital copies but this is a film that plays to families who are still more likely to buy DVDs,” he said.

Amazon will face another test later next week with the release of Rowling’s latest crime thriller. Writing under the pseudonym Robert Galbraith her next crime novel, The Silkworm hits stores on 19 June.

Last year after Rowling was revealed to be the author of the first Galbraith novel, The Cuckoo’s Calling, the novel became Amazon’s top seller. Amazon.com customers can sign up to find out when the book is available while the book is ready for pre-order on barnesandnoble.com.

Amazon sought to address customers’ concerns about the Hachette fracas last month by pointing out that the publisher’s products represent a very small proportion of its sales. "Negotiating with suppliers for equitable terms and making stocking and assortment decisions based on those terms is one of a bookseller's, or any retailer's, most important jobs," Amazon wrote. "Suppliers get to decide the terms under which they are willing to sell to a retailer."

It also encouraged buyers to look for used copies – a sale that would not benefit the publisher or author. Amazon has yet to comment on the Warner dispute.

The disagreements have led to a backlash from customers and authors. Comedian Stephen Colbert giving the company the middle finger on his show and calling Amazon boss Jeff Bezos’s “Lord Bezo-Mort” in reference to Rowling’s Harry Potter villain.

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