Apple and publishers under fire for ebook price fixing – The Verge

Apple will ask the Supreme Court to hear its ebooks antitrust case

2015-09-17T13:06:16-04:00

Apple appears ready to appeal its long-running ebooks antitrust case to the Supreme Court. In a filing from Wednesday, the company asked for a 30-day extension before filing its petition for a writ of certiorari, a request that the court hear the case.

Apple will have until October 28th to send its request

The request will be the latest turn in a case that's now spanned years. In 2013, Apple was found guilty of conspiring to fix the price of ebooks as a way of competing with Amazon. The Department of Justice alleged that the company had organized a scheme with major book publishers to coordinate favorable pricing. The judge on the case ultim …

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Apple to pay $450 million in ebooks antitrust suit with US states

2014-07-16T12:42:45-04:00

Apple will pay $450 million as part of the US state lawsuit against it claiming the company conspired to raise the price of ebooks to consumers. Pending an appeal effort from Apple, $400 million of that could be going back to consumers, which would add to an earlier $166 million book publishers agreed to pay out as part of an earlier settlement.

"This settlement proves that even the biggest, most powerful companies in the world must play by the same rules as everyone else," New York Attorney General Schneiderman said in a statement. "In a major victory, our settlement has the potential to result in Apple paying hundreds of millions of dolla …

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Apple settles $840 million ebooks price-fixing claim

2014-06-16T23:49:04-04:00

Apple has agreed to settle out of court with consumers and US states that brought a damages claim against the company for conspiring to raise the price of ebooks. The terms of the settlement have not been made public. Attorney Steve Berman, who represented the plaintiffs, had argued that Apple should be forced to pay $840 million, or triple the amount he estimated the company gained from jacked-up ebook prices. The trial was set to go to court next month.

The lawsuit stemmed from the 2013 ruling against Apple in which US District Judge Denise Cote found Cupertino guilty of colluding with publishers to keep prices higher than the discounted …

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Apple hit with $840 million damages claim for ebooks price fixing

2014-02-01T13:40:01-05:00

Apple has received a new damages claim of over $840 million for conspiring with publishing companies to raise the price of ebooks across the entire industry. The claim, filed Friday in New York by an attorney leading a class action lawsuit on behalf of ebooks customers in 33 states, stems from the US Justice Department's successful antitrust lawsuit against Apple that took place in the summer of 2013. Using evidence presented during the course of that trial last year, attorney Steve Berman begins by arguing that Apple owes American ebooks customers a bare minimum of $231 million in damages, and probably far more money than that.

bare minimum …

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You could get $3.06 per ebook as part of major publishers’ price fixing settlement

2013-09-01T12:19:03-04:00

apple ebook trial

As part of the ebook price fixing scandal that ensnared Apple with a guilty verdict this year, all five publishing giants involved eventually agreed to a settlement in federal court - and now we're starting to get a better idea of just how much consumers will be getting back as part of the deal. If you purchased an ebook from one of the publishers involved between April 1st, 2010 and May 21st, 2012, you could be eligible for up to $3.06 per book purchased. That number is for books that fall under the New York Times bestseller umbrella, while non-bestsellers will net you an estimated $0.73 per purchase. This will include ebooks purchased thro …

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Means, motive, and opportunity: why antitrust lawyers smacked down Apple’s iBookstore

2013-07-10T17:48:15-04:00

apple ebook trial

Earlier today, a federal court found that Apple had violated antitrust laws, colluding with publishers to drive ebook prices higher and break Amazon's hold on the market. On its face, the case involves publishers making decisions that favored their interests over consumers, most particularly the imposition of an "agency model" that lets publishers, not retailers, set book prices.

The cost of ebooks is what's on everyone's mind. Behind it all, though, is a decision that has nothing to do with pricing schemes and everything to do with a series of backroom deals and suspicious phone calls. Things that were banned in the publishers' settlements …

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Apple guilty of ebook price fixing, rules federal court

2013-07-10T09:00:53-04:00

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Apple's Eddy Cue, right, was accused of leading the conspiracy to raise prices

After a trial and several settlements with other publishers, a federal judge has ruled that Apple conspired to raise the price of ebooks from major publishers, and a hearing for damages will be held later. Apple was originally accused of price fixing in 2012, along with five of the six major publishers. Several publishers quickly caved, and all had agreed to settlements by early 2013, leaving Apple the only company facing a trial. Now, Judge Denise Cote has found that "the Plaintiffs have shown not just by a preponderance of the evidence but through compelling di …

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Apple tries putting Amazon on trial in ebooks antitrust case

2013-06-06T16:58:51-04:00

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While Apple is the only company on trial this week for allegedly conspiring with six of the country's top publishers to fix ebooks and violating antitrust laws, the proceedings early today in US District Court in Manhattan instead cast a hot light on Amazon's ebook business.

Apple has tried shifting attention to Amazon ever since the US Department of Justice filed a lawsuit last year accusing Cupertino of violating antitrust laws for allegedly plotting with the book publishers to limit Amazon's ability to discount ebooks and compete on price. Apple has denied wrongdoing and has repeatedly noted that when it first entered the ebook business i …

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Apple ebooks trial: Amazon ‘yelled … and threatened’ when publishers tried to control prices

2013-06-06T10:21:50-04:00

simon&schuster-book-publisher

One of the most curious claims that Apple's attorneys have made during the company's antitrust fight with the federal government this week is that Amazon considered handing over the ability to price ebooks to book publishers well before the publishers began pushing retailers in that direction. If true, that would take some heat off Apple, which has been accused of initiating the trend.

Apple's claim was a surprise, considering that Amazon's ability to lower ebook prices below its competitors' was one of the factors that contributed to Amazon's then 90-percent market share. Why would Amazon have wanted to give up a competitive advantage? The …

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Apple exec in ebooks antitrust case testifies fairness is why he ‘loves’ the company

2013-06-05T10:55:34-04:00

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Apple was "indifferent" about whether book publishers ripped away Amazon or any other retailer's ability to price their own books, because Apple is focused only on its own business. That was the claim made by Kevin Saul, an Apple executive who helps negotiate the company's book deals, in federal court yesterday.

The US Department of Justice has accused Apple of conspiring with five of the country's six largest book publishers to fix ebook prices in the trial, which was held in the US District Court of Manhattan and kicked off this week. On the second day of the trial, Saul described the attitude toward content creators instilled in the comp …

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