U.S. District Judge Denise Cote has found that Apple is shamed of colluding with five book publishers to fix ebook prices unnaturally high in the iBookstore , thereby impel Amazon and other on-line bookseller to do the same . There ’s no word yet on how much cash money and grant Apple will have to fork over , but beyond the punishment , hopefully it will dish as a warning to stave off other on-line retail conspiracies .
In April 2012 the DOJ file an anti - trust complaint against Apple the five Scripture publishers say that the companies “ conspire to raise , fix , and stabilize the retail price for newly liberate and bestselling trade e - books ” . Apple went forward with a non - jury trial last calendar month , and today , the court of law ruled that Apple had indeed conspire by suggesting that they should all charge prices such as $ 12.99 and $ 14,99 in the iBookstore , rather than the standard ebook price of $ 9.99 .
In a affirmation , givento the AP and others , Apple spokesman Tom Neumayr said that Apple had done nothing improper and that it would appeal the decision .
agree tothe trial run recordpieced together from obtained emails , depositions , and testimony , the level , of collusion start back in 2009 when Apple SVP Eddy Cue started study the ebook market in advancement of the iPad ’s release . Lo and behold , Apple realise that the market for ebooks was potentially vast and that their master competitor was Amazon .
Cue — which the phonograph record lead out of its way to paint as a “ master negotiator”—and his team recognise that publishers did n’t like Amazon ’s rock - bottom $ 9.99 pricing for ebooks , and that as a whole the publishers were hoping to drive that cost up .
The record goes into clinical point about Cue ’s meetings with various publishers and how Apple subtly “ orchestrated ” a confederacy to drive prices higher than they would naturally be to the detriment of both Apple ’s competitors and consumers . It ’s a astonishingly fascinating read , if you ’ve got the forbearance for all 160 pages .
Indeed , Judge Cote is unequivocalin her conclusion :
The question in this case has always been a narrow one : whether Apple participated in a price - fixing scheme in infringement of this country ’s antimonopoly laws . Apple is nonresistant here for facilitating and advance the Publisher Defendants ’ collective , illegal simpleness of trade . Through their conspiracy they forced Amazon ( and other resellers ) to relinquish retail pricing authorisation and then they raised retail tocopherol - book prices . Those higher prices were not the result of steady market forces but of a outline in which Apple was a full participant .
In other Christian Bible , the collusion between Apple and the publishers unnaturally raised the toll beyond what competing retailer would have set themselves , and presumably , higher than the raw price . Which is unsound for you because you should n’t have to pay more money just because executives want to wring more cash out of your wallet . [ New York State District CourtviaReutersandAP ( WaPo ) ]
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