As part of his investigation of pricing agreements between publishers and Amazon and Apple, Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal met with several of the states independent booksellers last Friday, according to a report on the website of the American Booksellers Association.

Blumenthal asked the booksellers to meet with him after receiving a letter from ABA head Oren Teicher, who was responding to the attorney general’s announcement in August that he was investigating whether agreements between the retailers and publishers may block competitors from offering cheaper e-book prices.

In response, Teicher wrote,

While we strongly share your commitment to maintaining the broadest access of books “in any format” to readers and consumers in Connecticut, we believe that the focus of your investigation misses the true potential danger facing readers. In our view, the far greater threat to consumers is not what megastore book retailers are charged for the books they sell, but whether these online and bricks-and-mortar superstores are engaged in below-cost pricing and loss-leader marketing to consumers that will offer Connecticut consumers only a fleeting bargain while enacting serious long-term losses.

So does the AG get it now?

I was impressed by the audience we had in Hartford and believe that we were being heard, says Annie Philbrick of Bank Square Books in Mystic. We all believe in competition as long as the playing field is as level and as fair as it can be, and we look forward to having Attorney General Blumenthal’s office follow through with a thorough research of our comments.