3 NOVEMBER 2001, Page 36

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From Mr Robin Terrell Sir: I would like to respond to Chris Lewis's article (`Cooking the books', 20 October). At Amazon we believe that we make it very clear to our customers which products and features are brought to them through working in co-operation with our suppliers. We strongly believe that we are setting the standards for the industry in terms of the transparency in disclosing this information.

In terms of the financial figures quoted in the article, these are purely speculative — this isn't information that we would disclose.

Robin Terrell

Managing Director, Amazon Books, Slough, Berkshire