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Council committee holds hearing on eBook Pricing Fairness Amendment Act (B26-0490)
Summary
The Committee on Human Services held a public hearing on B26-0490 to address rising ebook costs and restrictive publisher licensing. Witnesses from library organizations and DC Public Library supported the bill’s contract-terms approach and its multi-jurisdiction trigger.
Chair Matt Fruman (Ward 3) opened a public hearing on B26-0490, the Library Ebook Pricing Fairness Amendment Act of 2025, saying the bill is meant to help the District of Columbia Public Library (DCPL) and increase residents’ access to ebooks and audiobooks. "Publishers often use their market power to raise prices on new and popular titles," Fruman said, listing time-limited licenses, repeated repurchase requirements and nondisclosure clauses as examples of practices that squeeze library budgets.
Witnesses who testified in support included Angela Goodrich, chief operating officer of the Urban Libraries Council; Kyle Courtney, board chair of the Ebook Study Group and a copyright lawyer; Neva Faulkner of the District of Columbia Library Association; and DCPL Executive Director Richard Reyes Gavilan. Goodrich told the committee that library members now spend roughly $300,000,000 a year on digital materials and that opaque licensing terms frequently leave libraries paying for access they cannot deliver to patrons. Reyes Gavilan said DCPL’s ebook spending rose from $655,500 in FY2019 to $1,620,000 in FY25, and that average wait times for digital items reached 46 days in FY25.
Courtney described the bill as a narrowly tailored contract- and consumer-protection approach that avoids compelling publishers to license works and noted a trigger mechanism that delays the law’s effect until at least 10 other jurisdictions with a combined population of 50 million adopt substantially similar measures. "This bill does not require publishers to license anything to the district," Courtney told the committee, and the trigger clause is intended to reduce the risk of market isolation.
No formal vote was taken during the hearing; the committee set a deadline for written testimony to be submitted to the record by Jan. 5, 2026. The hearing record will be used to inform committee and council deliberations on next steps for B26-0490.
