“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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