Apple faces $840 million e-books claim, fights federal court-appointed monitor

“Apple Inc. faces as much as $840 million in state and consumer antitrust claims related to electronic-book deals with publishers as it continues to oppose a court-ordered monitor in a related U.S. government case,” Patricia Hurtado and Christie Smythe report for Bloomberg.

“Apple, in an emergency request to be considered tomorrow by a federal appeals court in New York, is seeking to halt oversight by Michael Bromwich, the court-appointed compliance monitor in the Justice Department’s lawsuit,” Hurtado and Smythe report. “State attorneys general and consumers who sued the world’s most valuable technology company are seeking $280 million in damages and want that amount tripled, a lawyer for them said in a Jan. 31 filing with the Manhattan judge presiding over the federal case. The plaintiffs said they’re entitled to triple damages under antitrust law because the U.S. had already “conclusively proven” at a trial last year that Apple orchestrated a conspiracy to fix prices.”

“U.S. District Judge Denise Cote concluded in July after a nonjury trial that Apple orchestrated a scheme with publishers to fix the prices of e-books. Cote also found Apple liable to 33 states that joined the U.S. Justice Department in its suit,” Hurtado and Smythe report. “Apple is appealing the trial judgment.”

Read more in the full article here.

MacDailyNews Take: Puppetry of the Denise.

Lady Elaine Fairchilde (left), U.S. Federal Puppet Denise Cote (right), or vice versa
Lady Elaine Fairchilde (left), U.S. Federal Puppet Denise Cote (right), or vice versa

[Thanks to MacDailyNews readers too numerous to mention individually for the heads up.]

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3 Comments

  1. Has Apple even made that much money from ebooks? Profits from ebooks have to be minuscule to their bottom line. I have to wonder if and some point they decide ebooks aren’t worth the trouble… (and the court succeeds!)

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