“Apple Inc has agreed to pay $450 million to resolve U.S. state and consumer claims the iPad manufacturer conspired with five major publishers to fix e-book prices, according to court records filed Wednesday,” Nate Raymond and Alison Frankel report for Reuters.
“The settlement, which would provide $400 million for consumers, is conditioned on the outcome of a pending appeal of a New York federal judge’s ruling last year that Apple was liable for violating antitrust laws,” Raymond and Frankel report. “A ruling by the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New York reversing the judge could, under the settlement, either reduce the amount Apple pays to $70 million, with $50 million for consumers, or eliminate payments altogether.”
“Apple in a statement denied that it had conspired to fix e-book prices and said it would continue pressing its case on appeal. ‘We did nothing wrong and we believe a fair assessment of the facts will show it,’ Kristin Huguet, an Apple spokeswoman, said,” Raymond and Frankel report. “Even if Apple does pay the full $450 million, the sum is barely 1 percent of the $37.04 billion it made in its last fiscal year, which ended in September. Steve Berman, a lawyer for the consumer class at Hagens Berman Sobol Shapiro, said if there is an ‘outright reversal, then we are done.’ But he said he believed the 2nd Circuit would uphold Cote’s ruling.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: The fiasco continues…
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Lawyers have complained for years that Judge Denise Cote pre-judges cases before she enters the courtroom – August 14, 2013
U.S. Federal Puppet Denise Cote: ‘Apple’s reaction to the existence of a monitorship underscores the wisdom of its imposition’ – January 16, 2014
Judge Denise Cote denies Apple request block her friend as ‘antitrust compliance monitor’ – January 13, 2014
Antitrust monitor Bromwich rebuts Apple accusations of ‘unconstitutional’ investigation – December 31, 2013
Apple seeks to freeze its U.S. e-books ‘antitrust monitor’ – December 15, 2013
The persecution of Apple: Is the U.S. government’s ebook investigation out of control? – December 10, 2013
Apple’s Star Chamber: An abusive judge and her prosecutor friend besiege the tech maker – December 5, 2013
Apple takes aim not just at court-ordered e-books monitor, but also at U.S. District Judge Denise Cote herself – December 2, 2013
U.S.A. v. Apple: Judge Denise Cote assigns DOJ monitor in Apple ebook price-fixing case – October 17, 2013
U.S.A. v. Apple: Judge issues injunction against Apple in ebooks antitrust case; largely in line with what DOJ wanted – September 6, 2013
U.S.A. v. Apple: Judge Denise Cote says Apple needs third-party supervision after ‘blatant’ ebook price fixing – August 28, 2013
why did apple agree to a non-jury trial?
Probably because they thought a judge would make a logical decision based on the law.
Ah a lot rests on that appeal, especially the integrity of Apple, or the Cote justice system depending.
So, when the government takes money from a publicly traded company owned by the investors, who gets the money? Where does it end up? Kind of like a shake down tax on the investors. I believe investors would rather it be returned to them as dividends. Can we take it off as taxes already paid when we fill out our taxes at the end of the year. Not sure where the government shake down field is on the tax form. I will have to ask my accountant about how to take these government shake down deductions.
I think this is a payout to the consumers who were “harmed” by buying ebooks at Apple’s higher prices. Why Apple is liable for people’s comparison shopping fails beats me.
You and Casioguy did read the story, right? The money involved is to settle the state suits. Apple doesn’t owe Texas any income taxes because we don’t have an income tax. Even if Apple did owe any federal taxes, the Feds aren’t getting any of this money.
TxUser wrote “we don’t have an income tax.” Not true. There is no personal income tax in Texas, but there is a tax on corporations’ revenues.
Apple, being a naughty boy who parks it’s funds overseas paying minimum taxes, needs to pay its rightful taxes this way. USA style!
The NAUGHTY factor here is entirely on the side of Carl Levin and his gang of desperate taxation thieves who refuse to bend on their DIRE taxation of already-been-taxed foreign made profits by US companies. When it’s FAR cheaper for Apple to literally BUY debt than directly bring home foreign made profits, you KNOW something incredibly stupid is going on inside #MyStupidGovernment.
What a stupid comment. Basically you are saying that the $$ Apple makes in the US they park overseas??? Nope. The money they make overseas STAYS oversees. Any corporation does that in a similar situation. Anyone would.
Meanwhile Amazonian Monopoly is free to hold the five publishers hostage financially & boycott independent small publishers who want to deal with Apple via iBooks.
Isn’t paying up an admission of guilt?