Apple has secured a preliminary approval from the courts for its e-book settlement of $450 million. The class action law suit was filed against Apple on behalf of consumers and 33 states alleging that the iBooks-seller had conspired with five publishers to set e-book prices high, hurting consumers.
The case case was raised in July 2013 when the Department of Justice accused Apple of violating antitrust laws to raise prices and hurt competition with rivals like Amazon. Apple agreed to settle in June and the deal would have Apple paying $400 million to consumers and $50 million to lawyers in the ruling is upheld in appeals. If Apple wins its appeal, then it would pay nothing.
Adding another layer of legal complexity, if the appeals court overturns the Cote case but gives it a new trial, then Apple would have to pay $50 million to consumers and $20 million to lawyers.
Source: Reuters
Reader comments
Court approves Apple's $450 million e-book settlement
Meanwhile Amazon, who bitched and moaned and got this whole process started has pushed their ebook prices up and up and up...
Oh wouldn't you know it? It was all just a ploy by Amazon to eliminate a competitor that they knew they couldn't face fairly in the marketplace. I'd like to thank the government pencilnecks involved in starting the crap that led to this debacle, good work gentlemen.
Because helping out one giant company by going after another giant company... Man, that's really looking out for us.
It's disgusting to think of how much good could have been done with the money wasted by the government in their investigation, and the lawyering and court costs. Apple's engineers in the 90s were right.
Lawyers Are Wimps ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Power_Macintosh_7100 )
[citation needed]
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