On Wednesday, the Wall Street Journal reported that Apple has been found guilty of price-fixing for e-books. The tech giant is claiming they had absolutely no involvement in the issue and they will be filing an appeal.
U.S. District Judge Denise Cote found the company to be absolutely involved, not just a passive player, in price-fixing that occurred right before the debut of the iPad in 2010. Apple is saying that five big publishers were simply unhappy with the way Amazon was doing things and Apple provided an alternative for them.
Hmm, we know you're never that innocent, Apple. Apple's agency pricing model made it so that publishers set the price of books, rather than retailers. This was to fight Amazon's policy of setting new book prices at $9.99, which publishers were saying was too low. So Apple allowed the publishers to set their price and then Apple took a cut of each sale.
And here's the shady part: The publishers and Apple were then using this model to threaten Amazon to move over to the agency pricing model. If Amazon didn't, the publishers would simply withhold their newest material until it wasn't as valuable. That's some downright dirty collusion, friends.
It's important to note that those same five publishers were also met with the same suit and have settled . Apple was the only party to protest.
Since it has been ruled that Apple has violated U.S. antitrust laws, there will now be a trial for damages. Thirty-three state attorney generals are suing to get back money for consumers who were forced to pay higher prices.
via Examiner National Edition Gadgets & Tech Channel Articles http://www.examiner.com/article/apple-found-guilty-of-price-fixing-antitrust-violation-with-e-book-prices?cid=roadrunner