HUGE NEWS: Amazon has filed suit against a UK self-publisher in Washington federal court, seeking to confirm an arbitration award against him for using clickfarms and bots AND BOOK STUFFING. (This is behind a paywall, but I have more info)
law360.com/internationala…
law360.com/internationala…
Amazon had filed suit last September against five parties, including Jake Dryan and his UK based companies, Green Publishing Limited and Project Olympus Limited, alleging they had manipulated the Kindle Direct Publishing service cnet.com/news/amazon-tr…
Amazon has now won its arbitration case against Jake Dryan and his companies, after detailing how Dryan had used bots and clickfarms to manipulate rank. But the next bit is the best bit. Are you paying attention bad boy stuffers?
Amazon specifically referred to the practice of book stuffing and how it was against TOS, and how it caused harm to other authors. 
Amazon claimed "breach of contract, intentional interference with contractual relations and violations of the Washington Consumer Protection Act."
Amazon's demand also explicitly said that book stuffing and rank manipulation artificially increase the payout at the expense of other authors.
Hopefully, when Amazon gets this arbitration award certified in federal court, it can act as some form of precedent against book stuffers and clickfarmers, and we can finally clean this sleazy crap out of the Kindle Store and put these cheating assholes out of business.
One thing is certain: Amazon has explicitly and clearly stated on the record that book stuffing is against the TOS, and that it harms other authors by decreasing their KU payouts. As for Jake Dryan, his books are all gone from the Kindle Store. He took one Chance too many.
In case there is any further doubt, because I know the stuffers like to find any ambiguity they can, Amazon's demand described Dryan's actions as having "manipulated and abused the Kindle services for their own financial gain while damaging other authors and Amazon’s reputation."
Note: all these quotes are taken from the Law360 report - linked in the first tweet - which is behind a paywall, unfortunately. But I'm sure there will be more accessible news reports very soon. I presumed you didn't want to wait to hear the good news :)
Here is the most relevant section from the court papers Amazon filed. The red box highlights the bit about book stuffing - let that tiresome argument be over once and for all.
Again, Amazon is saying that (a) stuffing is against TOS, (b) it harmed all authors, and (c) the stuffers also used clickfarms and bots. This is from the court docs.
Before anyone gets too excited about this legal action, this is the book at #17 in the Kindle Store at the time of writing. Six books stuffed in the back. @AmazonKDP will be giving this author an All Star bonus - unless they bump into Amazon's lawyers in the canteen, perhaps.
This book is #49 in the Kindle Store. @AmazonKDP's Executive Customer Relations team has known about this author's stuffing tactics for six months and continued to award All Star bonuses to this author worth thousands of dollars. @JeffBezos
I could give 20 more examples - just from the very top of the Contemporary Romance charts - of authors who engage in review manipulation, mass gifting, and book stuffing. @AmazonKDP is aware since the summer. Keeps giving them bonuses. That comes from YOUR payout, authors.
For anyone unaware of all the details here: we aren't talking about cheating in the sense of minor rule breaking. Millions of dollars has been purloined from the Kindle Unlimited author fund. This is serious stuff, and @AmazonKDP has been asleep at the wheel. @JeffBezos
And if those numbers shock you, here's some detail: one of the stuffers I've been tracking pulls in 10m-15m page reads every month. Together with All Star bonuses, that's a Kindle Unlimited pay out of around $100,000. Per month. One stuffing author. There are many, many more.
