“The U.S. hit Apple Inc. and five of the nation’s largest publishers with an antitrust lawsuit over the fast-growing e-book market, alleging they conspired to raise prices and block Amazon.com Inc. from selling e-books at $9.99,” Chad Bray, Brent Kendall and Jeffrey A. Trachtenberg report for The Wall Street Journal.
“Three of the publishers settled the U.S. suit and agreed to let Amazon and other retailers set the consumer price of e-books, upending the model that had led the price of many best-selling e-books to rise to $12.99 or $14.99,” Bray, Kendall and Trachtenberg report. “A separate settlement with states could lead to tens of millions of dollars in restitution to consumers who bought e-books.”
Bray, Kendall and Trachtenberg report, “Attorney General Eric Holder unveiled the federal suit at a Washington news conference. ‘As a result of this alleged conspiracy, we believe that consumers paid millions of dollars more for some of the most popular titles,’ he said. Some publishers hit back at the allegations, saying they did nothing wrong and were acting to prevent Amazon from taking a dominant position in e-book retailing.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: The U.S. DOJ is plainly inept.
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Macmillan CEO blasts U.S. DOJ; gov’t on verge of killing real competition for appearance of competition – April 11, 2012
U.S. DOJ may sue Apple over ebook price-fixing as early as today, sources say – April 11, 2012
