“The refusal of the U.S. Supreme Court to hear Apple’s appeal in the e-books antitrust case underscores how poorly served Apple has been by its legal team in this matter,” Mark Hibben writes for Seeking Alpha. “Apple will now be required to abide by the terms of Judge Denise Cote’s judgment of 2013 and the settlement Apple reached with the states.”
“This outcome leaves many Apple fans fuming at what they perceive as an unfair or political decision,” Hibben writes. “In fact, the appeal never stood a chance.”
“I’m sure that, even now, Apple’s management doesn’t feel they did anything wrong. Once again, this is really irrelevant. The case was never about right or wrong. It was about violating very specific Federal regulations regarding business practices. The right or wrong of Apple’s actions is open to debate. The fact that they violated SAA [Sherman Antitrust Act] is not. The Supreme Court has made that very clear,” Hibben writes. “The evidence presented by the Federal government that Apple knew about the publisher price fixing conspiracy, and entered into it willingly was really overwhelming. The fact that Apple may have felt that it was doing a service to consumers by breaking the Amazon monopoly doesn’t really matter.”
“Apple’s arrangements with iTunes content providers will probably come under renewed scrutiny,” Hibben writes. “Investors can expect that Apple will be much more cooperative with the Federal government, and take whatever corrective action is required.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: What’s done is done. It’s well past time to move on.
SEE ALSO:
In pretrial view, judge says leaning toward U.S. DOJ over Apple in e-books case – May 24, 2013
Lawyers have complained for years that Judge Denise Cote pre-judges cases before she enters the courtroom – August 14, 2013U.S. Supreme Court rejects Apple appeal over $450 million e-book case – March 7, 2016
Why Apple took its ebook antitrust battle to the U.S. Supreme Court – October 30, 2015
Apple asks U.S. Supreme Court to toss e-books antitrust decision – October 29, 2015
U.S. federal puppet Denise Cote says Apple e-books antitrust monitor’s term to end – October 13, 2015
U.S. DOJ says Apple e-books antitrust monitor no longer necessary – October 13, 2015
Apple is its ‘own worst enemy,’ U.S. antitrust monitor Bromwich claims – October 6, 2015
WSJ: U.S. Supreme Court should strike down the risible antitrust campaign against Apple – July 1, 2015
Apple is headed to the Supreme Court over e-book antitrust case? – June 30, 2015
Apple loses appeal in e-book price-fixing case – June 30, 2015