Four organizations representing authors and independent booksellers are asking U.S. Department of Justice officials to investigation online bookseller Amazon for antitrust violations, the New York Times reported Monday.

The Authors Guild, American Booksellers Association, Association of Authors' Representatives and Authors United said Amazon has used its market power to harm consumers, impoverish the book industry as a whole and damage the careers of authors.

"Given Amazon's dominant market share, no publisher—regardless the size—can afford to not do business with them, whatever the cost. And no one knows this better than Amazon, which has ruthlessly cut off the sales of publishers large and small when they have not yielded to Amazon's strong-arm negotiating demands," American Booksellers Association said in a letter addressed to William Baer, assistant attorney general for the antitrust division in the Justice Department.

The calls for an investigation that arose from last year's dispute between Amazon and publisher Hachette regarding the ability to sets its own prices for e-books, the Times reported. During the fight, Amazon made it much more difficult for readers to find and purchase Hachette books through its website, a move that angered many authors.

Amazon did not respond to inquiries for comment by the Times. http://nyti.ms/1Jfux0i

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