New York City Business & Commercial Litigation Law Blog

Book publisher Penguin Group is being accused of breach of contract and unjust enrichment by three writers who worked with the publisher through its self-publishing subsidiary. The authors, who are representing a class action in this business litigation, claim that Penguin did not pay them royalties that it promised and also levied unfair charges for fixing typos that the company made itself.

The subsidiary is called Author Solutions. According to the complaint, it is a "printing service" that authors pay for help self-publishing their works. Besides printing copies of its clients' books, Author Solutions offers editing, formatting and marketing services. Self-publishing is apparently a lucrative industry; the plaintiffs estimate that Author Solutions earns revenues of $100 million per year.

The King of All Media is not the King of the Courtroom, it appears. Legendary radio host Howard Stern's appeal of the dismissal of his $330 million claim against Sirius XM Radio Inc. was denied by a New York appellate court on April 11. The dispute was over the level of compensation Stern and his production company, One Twelve Inc., were due for bringing in subscribers to the satellite radio company.

New York readers likely know that Stern jumped to XM Satellite Radio in 2006, signing a five-year deal. He brought millions of his loyal listeners with him, which he carried along when XM merged with Sirius in 2008. Sirius had 3.3 million subscribers at the end of 2005 and the combined radio companies had 23.9 million subscribers at the end of last year, with Stern arguing that many of those listeners purchased subscriptions to listen to his show.

Employee theft is a major concern for New York-based retail businesses. The National Retail Federation reports that 44 percent of stolen merchandise in 2011 was taken by store employees. That translated to about $15 billion worth of products. Any way to eliminate or at least reduce shoplifting by workers would be tempting for most retailers.

One way that major retail companies attempt to combat employee shoplifting is to try to prevent people with a history of theft from getting hired in the first place. Standard employee background checks include information about criminal convictions. But some companies provide more comprehensive information about shoplifting accusations to retailers. These databases contain data about when prospective workers have been accused of stealing by prior employers, including times when the job applicant signed an admission of theft.

Back on March 6, we here at this New York business law blog discussed the $732 million fine levied by the European Commission against Microsoft for allegedly violating an agreement over Internet browsers that Microsoft said it inadvertently violated. Managing international business affairs without committing possible legal violations can be tricky, even for a company as huge as Microsoft. The company is now being investigated by two federal agencies for possible bribes given to foreign government officials in three countries.

The Justice Department and the Securities and Exchange Commission are reportedly both looking into claims that Microsoft or locals that the software giant did business with made payments to officials in violation of the federal Foreign Corrupt Practice Act, which prohibits U.S. companies from engaging in bribery overseas. Specifically, the agencies are said to be investigating Microsoft's alleged conduct in China, Italy and Romania. A Justice Department spokesman declined to confirm or deny the investigations.