NASHVILLE, TN / ACCESSWIRE / September 26, 2019 / International Liturgy Publications (ILP) and Lamb Publications have initiated an antitrust action against Oregon Catholic Press of Portland, Oregon. That lawsuit was filed August 27, 2019 in federal court in the Northern District of Indiana, South Bend Division.
The suit alleges that OCP conspired and attempted to monopolize through anti-competitive conduct the Catholic music publishing market in the United States. According to the complaint, OCP's illegal anticompetitive conduct included entering into market allocation agreements with competitors, which are per se violations of the antitrust laws. OCP's anticompetitive conduct also included imposing burdensome licensing and contractual conditions on certain horizontal competitors including the imposition of "publisher's premiums" on certain smaller competitors, refusing to license certain accompaniment editions, licensing only a limited number of musical works under its control in order to hinder and obstruct competition, and threatening and engaging in frivolous copyright litigation against certain horizontal competitors for no legitimate reason except to inhibit these competitors' ability to compete in the market.
The lawsuit alleges that OCP's illegal and anticompetitive conduct and attempt to monopolize the Catholic music publishing market in the United States began in 1993 and has continued through 2019. The suit alleges that OCP has caused consumers of Catholic music publishers to pay inflated prices for Catholic music publications and for the licensing of Catholic liturgical and worship music and songs in the United States. In particular, the lawsuit alleges that OCP's illegal and anticompetitive conduct was intended to drive International Liturgy Publications and Lamb Publications out of the market.
International Liturgy Publications (ILP) has been publishing Catholic music and hymnals since 1977. It is headquartered in Nashville, Tennessee. ILP publishes the music of well-known Catholic music composers Don Fishel, Jim Cowan, Dan Feiten, Ann LeCroy, Joe Raffa, Jane Terwilliger, Roger Holtz, Beth Ann Martinez, Sr. Stacy Whitfield, Brian Nelson, Louis Canter, Jim Hughes, Bill Svarda, and Vince Ambrosetti. In ILP's publishing library includes "Gift of Finest Wheat," "Emmanuel," "This Is Jesus, "Seed, Scattered and Sown," "Sanctuary," and more than 1500 other song titles. The primary business of Lamb Publications LLC, of Nashville, Tennessee, is publications and commercial printing, including for ILP and in conjunction with ILP publication projects.
The lawsuit filed August 27, 2019 further alleges that OCP has actively interfered with ILP's and Lamb Publications' development of a new and innovative product, namely, custom hymnals including diocesan hymnals. Since 2009, and continuing through 2019, ILP has worked with Catholic dioceses and individual parishes in the United States to create and publish custom hymnals for their congregations. As part of its anticompetitive conduct, and in an effort to maintain and further its illegal monopoly market share, OCP has refused to license most of the works from the music library that OCP controls. The lawsuit alleges that OCP knew that the custom hymnal projects and sales of ILP were and are a direct competitive threat to its monopoly position and that OCP has been working arduously to kill these projects and this innovation in the relevant market in order to protect its monopoly position. The antitrust lawsuit alleges that OCP through its withholding of licenses of these popular and required music titles to the ILP and Lamb Publications is injuring not only the plaintiffs in the lawsuit who have been attempting to publish hymnals that will compete with OCP's offerings, but OCP by denying the plaintiffs musical licenses for these works has also been injuring and denying revenues to the authors and composers of these works who receive all or a portion of the royalties that would be paid by the plaintiffs or their publication partners pursuant to standard music licenses. In this way, OCP's denial of this essential facility to the plaintiffs is economically irrational - except to the extent that it has furthered OCP's illegal monopolization efforts.
For more information, please contact ILP Publisher Vincent Ambrosetti: vincent.ambrosetti@ILPmusic.org
615-838-3000
To view the civil cover sheet, please click here: https://www.accesswire.com/media/561048/As-Filed-Civil-Cover-Sheet-Antitrust-Action-August-28-2019.pdf
SOURCE: LAMB Publications
View source version on accesswire.com:
https://www.accesswire.com/561048/Oregon-Catholic-Press-sued-in-antitrust-action-for-anti-competitive-conduct
