“Sixteen states have piled lawsuits on top of Apple, Macmillan, Penguin, and Simon and Schuster, four companies which were served with an antitrust lawsuit this morning by the Department of Justice.,” Meghan Kelly reports for VentureBeat.
“The suit is led by Texas and Connecticut, which, unlike the DOJ, are demanding financial damages be paid,” Kelly reports. “Other states include Alaska, Arizona, Colorado, Illinois, Iowa, Maryland, Missouri, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, South Dakota, Tennessee, Vermont and West Virginia and the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico.”
Kelly reports, “The Department of Justice sued Apple and publishers Hachette, HarperCollins, Macmillan, Simon and Schuster, and Penguin this morning for its new ‘agency pricing’ model… Thus far Hachette, Harper Collins and Simon and Schuster are said to have agreed to settle the case with the Department of Justice. Hachette and Harper Collins are the only two to have settled with the states thus far, offering a restitution to consumers. Macmillian, however, says it will follow the cases to court.”
Read more in the full article here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Readers “Fred Mertz,” Sarah,” and “Ottawa Mark” for the heads up.]
MacDailyNews Take: Okay, Connecticut, we get it. The bottomless vapidity in Dick Blumenthal’s eyes gives us hideous vertigo every single time. Enough said.
Now, as for Texas, if he hasn’t already, Tim ought to get good ol’ Rick on the horn and explain to him how that proposed Austin campus and all of those high-paying jobs just skedaddled on over to one of 34 other U.S. states that happen to possess at least an ounce of common sense. We can only imagine the phone call Steve Jobs would have placed.
You see, you can’t have it both ways and you shouldn’t enter into a gunfight if all you’ve got is a peashooter and a bad haircut. Especially when the other side has thermonuclear options.
Note to every government entity that might think they want to play games: Apple has plenty of potential moves.
Related articles:
Travis County considers giving Apple 80% tax break for Austin campus – April 5, 2012
Austin city council unanimously approves $8.6 million dollars in incentives for Apple Inc. – March 23, 2012
Texas Governor Rick Perry announces Apple to invest $304 million, create 3,600 new jobs in Austin – March 9, 2012
Australian gov’t considers suing Apple, five major publishers over eBook pricing – April 12, 2012
DOJ’s panties in a bunch over Apple and eBooks, but what about Amazon? – April 12, 2012
Antitrust experts: Apple likely to beat U.S. DOJ, win its eBook lawsuit – April 12, 2012
Why the market shrugged off the Apple antitrust suit – April 11, 2012
What’s wrong with the U.S. DOJ? – April 11, 2012
Macmillan CEO blasts U.S. DOJ; gov’t on verge of killing real competition for appearance of competition – April 11, 2012
U.S. DOJ hits Apple,major publishers with antitrust lawsuit, alleges collusion on eBook prices – April 11, 2012
U.S. DOJ may sue Apple over ebook price-fixing as early as today, sources say – April 11, 2012
