Because of the sharp increase in the prices of Elsevier's products and services in the last few years, the University of Konstanz has decided to discontinue its licensing agreement with this major publisher of scholarly journals. Elsevier has come in for criticism in the past because of the aggressiveness of its price policy and its lobbying against Open Access. For example, within the framework of the Cost of Knowledge, an initiative launched in 2012, academics have been calling on their peers to join them in boycotting Elsevier. To date, over 14,500 academics have responded to the call.
University of Konstanz press release: