U.S. Sues Apple, Large Publishers Over Ebook Price Fixing Scheme
April 11th, 2012Via: Reuters:
The Justice Department accused Apple Inc and five major publishers of conspiring to push up the prices of e-books and limit retail price competition.
The conspiracy has caused e-book consumers to pay “tens of millions of dollars more for e-books than they otherwise would have paid,” the Justice Department said in a lawsuit filed on Wednesday.
The department alleged that Apple and the publishers had a common interest in fighting Amazon.Com Inc’s practice of selling e-books for as little as $9.99, and decided to work together to raise prices.
Three of the publishers – News Corp’s HarperCollins Publishers Inc, CBS Corp’s Simon & Schuster Inc and Lagardere SCA’s Hachette Book Group – agreed to settle with the Justice Department. The settlement terms were not immediately disclosed.
“To effectuate their conspiracy, the publisher defendants teamed up with defendant Apple, which shared the same goal of restraining retail price competition in the sale of e-books,” the Justice Department complaint said.
The lawsuit was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York on Wednesday.
