HIGHER EDUCATION OPPORTUNITY ACT (HEOA)

COMPLIANCE INFORMATION

The Higher Education Opportunity Act (HEOA), effective July 1, 2010, contains requirements in which publishers can provide transparency of information to prospective adopters at institutions of higher education (including both 2-year/4-year and career schools) and the availability of products sold in packages of bundled components.

Lippincott Williams & Wilkins is working to ensure complete and timely information in compliance with HEOA. Marketing, Editorial, Sales, Operations and Production teams are involved in reviewing and developing processes and practices. To that extent, here are details regarding our efforts:

Transparency

HEOA requires that post-secondary school students have the following information available regarding their adopted textbooks:

  • List prices
  • Substantial changes to the content of a new edition
  • Alternate formats
  • Previous copyright years (to serve as an indicator of when the next edition might be published)

Lippincott Williams & Wilkins is loading all of the required information onto our corporate online store's product pages and are available at shop.LWW.com or web pages and portals designed for student and instructor use. We will now provide faculty with direct access to this information through messaging integrated within our representative's selling tools, packing slips on review copies and print and electronic collateral.

This is the language that Lippincott Williams & Wilkins will employ to direct prospective adopters to the HEOA-mandated information:

In compliance with Federal HEOA guidelines, valuable information on pricing, previous editions and alternate formats are available at shop.LWW.com where you may search by ISBN, author, title, or keyword for materials in your area of interest.

Textbook Package

The HEOA requires that students are aware that components are available for sale separately for most textbook packages. However, the law does not state that resellers (including college stores) have to carry package components separately. It also does not in any way impact adopters' ability to choose packages, or our ability to market packages as the preferred product configuration where appropriate to meet our customer needs.

The law treats the certain categories of packaged products as a single, integrated product (referred to in the statute as "integrated textbooks") — and therefore exempt from the component availability requirement. These include:

Packages containing components from other vendors: These are products that contain a component that the publisher obtains from a third party under terms of a contract that prohibits the publisher from selling that component separately. This contract restriction limits the availability of the third-party's component to individuals who are also purchasing the textbook thereby limiting cannibalization of sales in the third party's core market.

Content Interdependency: These are products in which the content of the textbook and other components (including but not limited to access codes and stand alone CDs) is so interrelated that the textbook cannot be used effectively if separated.

Lippincott Williams & Wilkins will conduct a thorough audit of all the company's textbook packages and will identify those that fall into the integrated textbook category — either due to a contractual situation or content interdependency.

The components of all other Lippincott Williams & Wilkins bundles are available for purchase separately.