Apple eBook oorlog met Amazon

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.