“In a 160-page ruling issued yesterday, District Court Judge Denise Cote ruled against Apple AAPL +1.5% for conspiring with five publishers to raise the prices of electronic books,” Michael Bobelian writes for Forbes. “The verdict marks a high-profile victory for the antitrust division of the Department of Justice and will ensure that the prices of e-books remain low for consumers for the foreseeable future. The long-term impact of the verdict is less clear, however.”
“American antitrust law protects consumers – not competitors, suppliers, or distributors. Sometimes, the interests of consumer and these industry players overlap,” Bobelian writes. “But when they don’t, as was the case with the publishers in this lawsuit, there is little recourse. Are lower e-book prices good for consumers? Absolutely. But what if those lower prices decimate competition in the long run, allowing Amazon to raise prices in the future.”
Bobelian writes, “And is the price of a product the only measure by which consumer welfare should be measured? What if lower e-book prices reduce the variety and quality of books going forward? It may be difficult to provide a true measure of such a qualitative factor, but avid book readers and society at large do lose out when a wide variety of writers, editors, and publishers cannot thrive in this environment.”
Read more in the full article here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Rainy Day” for the heads up.]
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