Apple had been accused of colluding with five publishers to boost e-book prices beginning in late 2009, as the Silicon Valley giant was preparing to launch its popular iPad tablet. The U.S. Department of Justice said this conspiracy was designed to undercut online retailer Amazon.com Inc’s dominance of the fast-growing e-books market.
Only Apple went to trial, while the publishers – Lagardere SCA’s Hachette Book Group Inc and Macmillan, News HarperCollins Publishers LLC, Pearson Plc’s Penguin Group Inc and CBS Corp’s Simon & Schuster Inc — settled with the U.S. government and the states. “The plaintiffs have shown that the publisher defendants conspired with each other to eliminate retail price competition in order to raise e-book prices, and that Apple played a central role in facilitating and executing that conspiracy,” Cote said.
Gelezen bij Reuters als Apple colluded on e-book prices, judge finds.