Amazon's bid to exclusively secure the .book domain has sparked a controversy over the retailer's dominant position on the web.
The Authors Guild and the Association of American Publishers (AAP) have called on the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) to rethink the allocation of new tailored web domains.
In a clear reference to Amazon, the two bodies told ICANN that it must ensure "already dominant, well-capitalised companies" cannot "expand and entrench their market power" with the system.
Last year, companies were allowed to bid for new generic top-level domains (gTLDs) which did not use the usual suffixes like .com, .org or .co.uk.
Applications submitted to ICANN included .ferrari, .ford, .microsoft, .netflix and .apple, all from their respective official companies.
But Amazon EU also submitted bids for various generic web suffixes, such as .music, .movies, .mobile and .app.
The Authors Guild and AAP are particularly concerned that Amazon wants to get exclusive use of the .book and .author domains.
They say that granting a single private company the exclusive use of a closed domain string would "defeat the expressed public interest purposes" for which gTLDs were created.
"From inception, the introduction of new gTLDs has been promoted as a means to increase competition, add consumer choice, support internet freedom, expand market differentiation and diversify service providers," said Allan Adler, the general counsel and vice president of government affairs at the AAP.
"How would handing over ownership of a domain string to any one single private company, such as a retailer, for its own business goals support that public service mission?"
Authors Guild president Scott Turow added: "Placing such generic domains in private hands is plainly anti-competitive.
"[It is] allowing already dominant, well-capitalised companies to expand and entrench their market power. The potential for abuse seems limitless."
The AAP notes that Amazon's gTLD application states that it wants all domains in .book to be "registered to Amazon for use in pursuit of Amazon's business goals".
The retailer also said that .book would "provide a unique and dedicated platform for Amazon while simultaneously protecting… its brand".
Adler said that giving exclusive control over .book to "a private company, interested in exploiting the domain solely for business purposes, does a disservice to ICANN's broader intents".
He added: "The vast book community - authors, publishers, sellers, libraries, readers, educators, editors, researchers, literary agents, collectors, printers, clubs, archives and many others - shouldn't be barred from connecting around the world through the .book domain. This was the stated mission of the ICANN initiative and should be its goal."
The AAP wants any application for a closed generic gTLD registry to require a commitment on the company or organisation to act in the public interest.
Each application for a gTLD costs $185,000 (£118,000), meaning Amazon will have spent in excess of $10 million on all its applications. The firm also faces a $25,000 annual cost to keep each domain on ICANN's database.
