An Act To Control the Costs of College Textbooks -
Maine Legislature, Session 124, LD 1323
Committee: Education and Cultural Affairs
Sponsors: LAJOIE, BLISS, ADAMS, BEAUDOIN, BOLDUC, HANLEY, MAGNAN, ROTUNDO, WAGNER
Amends: 20-A MRSA §10009

MAINE STATE LEGISLATURE 
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124th MAl E LEGISLATURE 
FIRST P~GULAR SESSION=2009 
Legislative Document 
No. 1323 
H.P.927 
House of Representatives, March 31, 2009 
An Act To Control the Costs of College Textbooks 
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Reference to the Committee on Education and Cultural Affairs suggested and ordered 
printed. 
Presented by Representative LAJOIE of Lewiston. 
Cosponsored by Senator BLISS of Cumberland and 
17/l-~ 1n.1l!I!£:~{ 
MILLICENT M. MacFARLAND 
Clerk 
Representatives: ADAMS of Portland, BEAUDOIN of Biddeford, BOLDUC of Auburn, 
HANLEY of Gardiner, MAGNAN of Stockton Springs, ROTUNDO of Lewiston, 
VALENtINO of Saco, WAGNER of Lewiston. 
Printed on recycled paper 
Be it enacted by the People of the State of Maine as follows: 
Sec. 1. 20-A MRSA §10009is enacted to read: 
§10009. Sale and purchase oftextbool{s and instructional materials 
1. Definitions. As used in this section, unless the context otherwise indicates, the 
,) 
following tenns have the following meanings. 
A. 
"Bundled," with respect to instructional materials, means that a textbook and 
other instructional materials are packaged together with supplemental items that are 
not required or recommended for a given course by faculty or staff to be sold for one 
. price. hlstructional materials are not considered bundled if they are designed solely 
for sale as an integrated combination of 2 or more units or materials that cannot be 
1-1 
sold separately due to 3rd-party contractual agreements, custom editions or special 
editions. 
B .. "Instructional materials" means any textbooks, workbooks, CD-ROMs and other 
course-related material required or recommended by the faculty or staff for a given 
course. 
C. "Postsecondary educational institution" or "institution" means any postsecondary 
educational institution incorporated or chartered under the laws of the State. 
21' 
2. Bundled instructional materials. A publisher of instructional materials may not 
provide bundled instructional materials for sale to students unless students are also 
provided with the option of purchasing those instructional materials separately. 
3. 
Price of instructional materials; history of revISIons. 
A publisher of 
instructional materials that may be purchased by students enrolled at a postsecondary 
educational institution shall, upon request of a faculty or staff member Of that institution, 
make the following available prior to the completion of an order for instructional 
materials for a: given course: 
. 
A. The price at which the publisher will make the instructional materials available to 
bookstores located on campus or that have a contract with the institution to provide 
bookstore services to its students; and 
B. A list containing the history and details of revisions, if any, for the instructional 
materials since the last published edition. 
4. 
Code of ethics and practice standards for employees and vendors. 
A 
postsecondary educational institution shall establish a code of ethics and practice 
standards for faculty, staff and vendors that provide that: 
A. 
An employee of a postsecondary educational institution may not demand .or 
receive any payment, loan,· subscription, advance, deposit of money, . service or 
anything of value, present or promised, as an inducement for requiring students 
enrolled at the institution to purchase specific instructional materials. An employee 
or a department of a postsecondary educational institution may.receive: 
) 
) 
) 
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(1) Sample copies of instructional materials and instructor copies of instructional 
materials that are not to be sold by faculty, staff or bookstores; 
(2) Royalties or other compensation from sales of instructional materials that 
include the writing or work of the employee; 
. 
(3) Honoraria for acade'mic peer review of instructional materials; and 
(4) Training in the use of instructional materials and teclmologies; and 
B. An instructional materials vendor or bookstore located on campus or a bookstore 
that contracts with the postsecondary educational institution to provide bookstore 
services to students may not solicit faculty and staff members for the purpose of 
selling instructional materials that liave been provided by a publisher for review at no 
charge to the faculty or staff. 
The code and standards must also provide that 
bookstores may not permit book wholesalers conducting buy-backs on campus to 
accept free review instructional materials from faculty or staff and may not engage in 
any trade of instructional materials marked or identified as free review Instructional 
materials. 
SUMMARY 
This bill requires publishers of textbooks and other instructional materials that are 
provided for use in postsecondary educational institutions in the State to disclose, upon 
the request of a· faculty or staff member, the price of the instructional materials prior to 
the completion of such orders for instructional materials for a given course. The bill 
prohibits the practice of bundling, which requires a student purchasing college textbooks 
and required instructional materials to also purchase other supplemental items that are n6t 
required for a given course. The bill also requires postsecondary educational institutions 
in the State to establish a code of ethics and practice standards for faculty, staff and 
vendors who order textbooks and other instructional materials.