Post date: Apr 11, 2012 8:55:23 PM
WASHINGTON, D.C., UNITED STATES (APRIL 11, 2012) ( POOL ) - The U.S. Justice Department announced Wednesday (April 11) a lawsuit against Apple and five publishing houses, alleging they conspired to fix the prices of e-books.
The U.S. Justice Department sues Apple and publishing houses over e-book prices.
The Justice Department accused Apple of colluding with five publishers, as the Silicon Valley giant was launching its iPad in early 2010 and was seeking to break up Amazon's low-cost dominance in the digital book market.
U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder told a news conference in Washington that executives at the highest levels of Apple and the publishers worked together to eliminate competition among sellers of e-books.
"As a result of this alleged conspiracy, we believe that consumers paid millions of dollars more for some of the most popular titles," Holder said.
The suit was filed against Apple as well as HarperCollins, Simon and Schuster, Hachette Book Group, Penguin Group, and MacMillan. Holder said that three of them - HarperCollins, Simon and Schuster and Hachette Book Group - already reached a settlement with the government. But Apple, Penguin and MacMillan appear poised to fight the lawsuit.
The Justice Department said it will vigorously pursue the suit against Apple and the publishers that did not settle.
According the Justice Department complaint, Apple successfully persuaded the publishers to adopt an agency model that allowed publishers to set the price of e-books and in turn, Apple would take a 30 percent cut. The Apple agreements with publishers effectively barred them from allowing rival retailers to sell the same books at lower prices.