Hymnal Giant Accused Of Pushing Rivals Out Of Pews

By Nadia Dreid

Law360 (August 28, 2019, 9:05 PM EDT) -- Nearly 70% of the country’s Catholics are singing out of hymnals made by the same company — one that has been using its monopoly on must-have worship songs to weed out the competition, according to a new antitrust lawsuit.

Oregon Catholic Press has been wielding its impressive catalog of Catholic liturgical songs as a weapon to exact exorbitant licensing fees from smaller publishers that it views as a threat to its empire, International Liturgy Publications said Tuesday in the suit it filed in an Indiana federal court.

“Because OCP controlled the titles that had become essential to the viability of [ILP’s] music publications, [ILP] had no choice than to pay the higher fees,” the smaller publisher said.
Catholic parishes often look for traditional fare in their hymnals, and without certain well-known and loved songs in the publishing company’s repertoire — some of which are in public use but many of which are not — they will be passed over more often than not, ILP said.

And the “burdensome licensing and contractual conditions” imposed by OCP is making it hard for publishers like ILP to get access to the songs they need for their hymnals to sell, the smaller publisher said in the suit.
ILP says OCP asked it to pay a 10% publisher fee on top of the 10% standard licensing royalty, and that its use of the copyrighted material was also given a five-year time limit, contrary to the industry practice of licensing musical titles for the life of the publication.

Another clause in the licensing contract also required ILP to keep the extra fee a secret, according to the suit.
The smaller publisher says it was the target of these higher fees because it was viewed as a threat to OCP’s business, and that the head of the OCP had already divulged that it was concerned by ILP’s competition.

But the suit also claims that OCP has taken other steps to solidify its monopoly through market allocation.
The publisher managed to “substantially [eliminate] any meaningful competition” by hatching a deal with its next three biggest competitors to divide up submarkets so as to not step on each other’s toes, according to the suit.
Under these alleged agreements, the suit says one company would focus on hardcover hymnals, another on weekly church bulletins and advertising, and a third on “softcover seasonal newsprint missalettes,” which walk churchgoers through what needs to be said and read during mass at a particular service.

These deals, which date back to 1993, are still in place today, ILP said.

Catholic consumers are being hurt by the larger publisher’s anti-competitive behavior, because they’ve been forced to pay inflated prices for access to hymnals and worship music, the suit said.
“[U]nless enjoined and restrained by this court, the defendant will continue to engage in collusive and anti-competitive conduct,” ILP said.

Representatives for International Liturgy Publications and Oregon Catholic Press did not immediately return a request for comment.

ILP is represented by Donald J. Schmid of The Law Offices of Donald J. Schmid.
Counsel information for Oregon Catholic Press was not immediately available.

The suit is Lamb Publications LLC et al. v. Oregon Catholic Press, case number 3:19-cv-00686, in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Indiana.

--Editing by Gemma Horowitz.


Click here for the court document.</>