Apple found guilty of e-book price fixing

A U.S. District Court judge has found Apple guilty of attempting to fix e-book prices by conspiring with five major publishers, according to a report in the Christian Science Monitor.

The company was accused of working with Hachette, HarperCollins, Simon & Schuster, Macmillan and Penguin to raise e-book prices to $12.99 and $14.99 when it launched its iBookstore in 2010. At the time, the vast majority of the e-book market was controlled by Amazon, which sold books for $9.99 on its popular Kindle e-readers.

In a statement, Apple admitted to no wrongdoing.

"We gave customers more choice, injecting much needed innovation and competition into the market, breaking Amazon's monopolistic grip on the publishing industry," the statement read.

However, Judge Denise Cote wrote that Apple was "an essential member of the charged conspiracy," while the five publishers were also to blame.

"From the consumer's perspective…the arrival of the iBookstore brought less price competition and higher prices," Cote's ruling read.

As evidence against Apple, the Department of Justice submitted a series of emails between the late Apple co-founder Steve Jobs and James Murdoch of News Corporation, which owns HarperCollins. the emails show that Jobs attempted to convince Murdoch that Amazon's pricing model was unsustainable, and that the publisher would eventually have to work with Apple to create a higher-priced e-book market. The emails show that Murdoch eventually agreed.

According to the news source, the five publishers have already settled in a dispute resolution and will issue consumer credits worth about $175 million. Apple, meanwhile, plans to appeal the ruling.

When conducting negotiations with their partners, businesses must make sure they are still complying with anti-trust law. In the event of a legal challenge, it helps to work with a Phoenix business attorney.

Categorised in: Litigation

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