Earlier this fall a MobyLives story reported that the Connecticut attorney general‘s office had interviewed indie booksellers as part of an investigation into pricing agreements between publishers and Apple and Amazon. The point of the investigation was to uncover whether, as American Bookseller’s Association head Oren Teicher put it, “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.”

Now, a report on the ABA’s Bookselling This Week blog says the Texas attorney general is also talking to booksellers as part of its own, similar investigation. According to the report,

On November 4, three Texas-based independent booksellers met with the antitrust division of the state Attorney General’s office, in Austin, Texas, to discuss the digital content agency model and the dangers posed by below-cost pricing. Booksellers participating in the meeting were ABA Board member Steve Bercu of BookPeople in Austin, Valerie Koehler of Blue Willow Bookshop in Houston, and Claudia Maceo Sharp of The Twig Book Shop in San Antonio.

… The booksellers stressed to the antitrust division their support for the agency model for the sale of digital content because it prevents below-cost pricing and loss-leader marketing by online superstores seeking to acquire market share and to concentrate power. They also shared their belief that the agency model allows for a wide diversity of retailers in the marketplace and that it benefits consumers because it ensures the continued distribution of books by small, independent businesses with a wide variety of viewpoints.

UPDATE: Michael Cader of Publisher’s Lunch has written in to correct the misleading tense of our original headline on this piece, “Texas joins list of states investigating Amazon and Apple pricing agreements.” Cader points out that Texas is not “joining” other states with their investigation; they already “joined” earlier — which, as Cader notes, was “First reported June 1 in Publishers Lunch Deluxe.” Thus, this post has been updated to clarify that the investigation itself is not new, although the main news of the piece — that the Texas a.g. has interviewed indie booksellers as part of his investigation — is. Our thanks to Cader for the correction.