A United States District Court Judge sided with the State of Delaware, the United States and 32 other jurisdictions in finding Apple Inc. liable for violating the antitrust laws by conspiring with major U.S. publishers to fix the prices of electronic books.
The judge’s opinion and order comes after a three-week bench trial in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York that ended June 20. The Court found the government plaintiffs demonstrated that five major publishers “conspired with each other to eliminate retail price competition in order to raise e-book prices, and that Apple played a central role in facilitating and executing that conspiracy.”
“The publishers and Apple manipulated the marketplace by artificially increasing prices,” Attorney Delaware Genera Beau l Biden said. “As confirmed by the Court today, that is against the law and it is wrong.”
The Court’s order and opinion only addressed the issue of Apple’s liability under federal and state antitrust law. Issues involving damages and other remedies will be the subject of future proceedings as determined by the court.
The publishers, Hachette Book Group Inc.; Harper Collins Publishers L.L.C.; Simon & Schuster Inc.; Holtzbrinck Publishers LLC d/b/a/ Macmillan; and Penguin Group (USA), Inc., had settled lawsuits filed by states and others against them prior to trial, which will result in consumers nationwide receiving more than $166 million in compensation provided the Court approves all of the settlements.
