AfterDawn: Tech news

Apple fights alone as Justice Dept settles e-book case with Macmillan

Written by James Delahunty @ 10 Feb 2013 8:21

Apple fights alone as Justice Dept settles e-book case with Macmillan Apple is last man standing in DoJ case.
The Department of Justice (DoJ) had previously settled an anti-trust case with four of five book publishers alleged to have conspired with Apple Inc. to fix prices of e-books. The DoJ sued Apple and the five publishers - Macmillan, Hachette Book Group Inc., HarperCollins Publishers L.L.C., Penguin Group (USA) Inc. and Simon & Schuster Inc. - for damaging the emerging market with its conspiracy, and costing consumers millions of dollars more.

On Friday, the DoJ and Macmillan filed a settlement in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, which is pending approval. If it is approved by the court, then only Apple will be left in the Justice Department's war path.

The case was filed in April last year, and alleged that Apple Inc. and the publishers conspired to eliminate competition in the free market by forcing e-book retailers to keep prices of the most sought after e-books higher than they would otherwise be.



The DoJ said that one of the publishers' CEO's had remarked that e-books were being sold at a "wretched $9.99 price point." When you have a lot of e-book retailers, they will naturally look to provide the best prices for the content to keep customers coming back, and with the e-book market growing all the time, such competition is vital for consumers to feel comfortable adapting.

"As a result of today's settlement, Macmillan has agreed to immediately allow retailers to lower the prices consumers pay for Macmillan's e-books," said Jamillia Ferris, Chief of Staff and Counsel at the Department of Justice's Antitrust Division.

"Just as consumers are already paying lower prices for the e-book versions of many of Hachette's, HarperCollins' and Simon & Schuster's new releases and best sellers, we expect the prices of many of Macmillan's e-books will also decline."

The trial against Apple is scheduled to begin in June 2013.

Previous Next  
Comments have been disabled for this article.

Latest news

Roomba Combo j7+ review - Clever trick allows robot vacuum finally to tackle home with rugs and carpets Roomba Combo j7+ review - Clever trick allows robot vacuum finally to tackle home with rugs and carpets (06 Jun 2023 9:19)
Roomba Combo j7+ is the very first Roomba model to combine robot vacuum with mopping features. And Roomba Combo j7+ does all that with a very clever trick, which tackles the problem with mopping and carpets. But is it any good? We found out.
Neato, the robot vacuum company, ends its operations Neato, the robot vacuum company, ends its operations (02 May 2023 3:38)
Neato Robotics has ceased its operations. American robot vacuum pioneer founded in 2005 has finally called it quits and company will cease its operations and sales. Only a skeleton crew will remain who will keep the servers running until 2028.
5 user comments
How to Send Messages to Yourself on WhatsApp How to Send Messages to Yourself on WhatsApp (20 Mar 2023 1:25)
The world's most popular messaging platform, Meta-owned WhatsApp has enabled sending messages to yourself. While at first, this might seem like an odd feature, it can be very useful in a lot of situations. ....
18 user comments
How to Enable Bluetooth on Stadia Controller How to Enable Bluetooth on Stadia Controller (11 Feb 2023 1:04)
Google shut down its streaming game service Stadia late last month and this means that some people have Stadia controllers lying around that seem to be of no use. That is fortunately not the ....
2 user comments
Guide: How to Kick Unwanted Guests from Your Netflix Account Guide: How to Kick Unwanted Guests from Your Netflix Account (26 Jan 2023 2:14)
Sharing a Netflix account with a person in a different location is possible and indeed very common, although the company doesn't necessarily enjoy this behavior from their customers. However, ....

News archive