June 20 (Reuters) - Amazon.com ( AMZN ) must face a

lawsuit by independent authors accusing the e-commerce giant of

monopolizing the retail market for audiobooks and causing them

to overpay for the distribution of their works, a federal judge

ruled on Wednesday.

U.S. District Judge Jennifer Rochon in the federal court in

Manhattan rejected for now Amazon's ( AMZN ) bid to dismiss the proposed

class action by author Christine DeMaio, who publishes under the

name CD Reiss.

Reiss sued last year, alleging Amazon's ( AMZN ) audiobooks unit

Audible violated antitrust law by charging higher distribution

fees for independent and self-published writers who decline to

participate in a program that makes Amazon ( AMZN ) the exclusive

distributor for books on Audible for 90 days.

The program offers self-published authors 40% royalties for

book distribution, compared with 25% for authors who chose

non-exclusive, competitive distribution.

Amazon ( AMZN ) and Audible did not immediately respond to requests

for comment. Amazon ( AMZN ) has denied any wrongdoing, saying the

audiobook market is "healthy and competitive."

Steve Berman, a lead attorney for Reiss, on Wednesday said

they welcomed Rochon's order and looked forward to the next

phase of the litigation.

Audible is the world's largest audiobook retailer,

accounting for more than 60% of domestic purchasing compared

with about 20% for Apple, according to the lawsuit.

Amazon ( AMZN ), in seeking dismissal of the lawsuit, said Reiss had

shown no evidence that Audible's program had induced any authors

to sign an exclusive deal.

Amazon ( AMZN ) also told Rochon that it was lawful for the company

to spend more resources promoting its exclusive content than on

other titles.

The lawsuit seeks more than $5 million in damages and class

action status for thousands of authors.

The case is CD Reiss v. Audible Inc, U.S. District Court,

Southern District of New York, No. 1:24-cv-05923-JLR.

For plaintiff: Steve Berman of Hagens Berman Sobol Shapiro;

and Phil Cramer of Sperling Kenny Nachwalter

For defendant: Carrie Mahan, Ben Mundel and Randi Singer of

Sidley Austin

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