I haven’t really covered this in any great detail, but there’s been a ongoing trial that has Apple accused of violating federal antitrust laws by leading a conspiracy to keep the prices of eBooks artificially high. Apple has always said that it is innocent of these charges, but today U.S. District Judge Denise Cote in Manhattan decided that Apple was guilty. Here’s what Reuters had to say:
Cote said the plaintiffs presented “compelling evidence” that Apple violated the federal Sherman antitrust law by playing a “central role” in a conspiracy with five major publishers to eliminate retail price competition and raise e-book prices.
“Apple chose to join forces with the publisher defendants to raise e-book prices and equipped them with the means to do so,” the judge wrote in a 159-page decision. “Without Apple’s orchestration of this conspiracy, it would not have succeeded as it did.”
Lovely. Apple continues to proclaim it’s innocence. Here’s what they said to AllThingsDigital:
“Apple did not conspire to fix ebook pricing and we will continue to fight against these false accusations. When we introduced the iBookstore in 2010, we gave customers more choice, injecting much needed innovation and competition into the market, breaking Amazon’s monopolistic grip on the publishing industry. We’ve done nothing wrong and we will appeal the judge’s decision.”
Expect years of litigation to follow. I’m calling it now.
Like this:
Like Loading...
Related
This entry was posted on July 10, 2013 at 11:11 am and is filed under Commentary with tags Apple, Lawsuit. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
Judge Says Apple Guilty Of Fixing eBook Prices…. Apple Vows To Fight
I haven’t really covered this in any great detail, but there’s been a ongoing trial that has Apple accused of violating federal antitrust laws by leading a conspiracy to keep the prices of eBooks artificially high. Apple has always said that it is innocent of these charges, but today U.S. District Judge Denise Cote in Manhattan decided that Apple was guilty. Here’s what Reuters had to say:
Cote said the plaintiffs presented “compelling evidence” that Apple violated the federal Sherman antitrust law by playing a “central role” in a conspiracy with five major publishers to eliminate retail price competition and raise e-book prices.
“Apple chose to join forces with the publisher defendants to raise e-book prices and equipped them with the means to do so,” the judge wrote in a 159-page decision. “Without Apple’s orchestration of this conspiracy, it would not have succeeded as it did.”
Lovely. Apple continues to proclaim it’s innocence. Here’s what they said to AllThingsDigital:
“Apple did not conspire to fix ebook pricing and we will continue to fight against these false accusations. When we introduced the iBookstore in 2010, we gave customers more choice, injecting much needed innovation and competition into the market, breaking Amazon’s monopolistic grip on the publishing industry. We’ve done nothing wrong and we will appeal the judge’s decision.”
Expect years of litigation to follow. I’m calling it now.
Share this:
Like this:
Related
This entry was posted on July 10, 2013 at 11:11 am and is filed under Commentary with tags Apple, Lawsuit. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.