The second circuit’s ruling followed a 2013 decision by US district judge Denise Cote after a non-jury trial that Apple played a “central role” in a conspiracy with publishers to eliminate retail price competition and raise ebook prices. The Justice Department said the scheme caused some ebook prices to rise to $12.99 or $14.99 from the $9.99 price previously charged by market leader Amazon.com. “Apple’s liability for knowingly conspiring with book publishers to raise the prices of ebooks is settled once and for all,” said Bill Baer, head of the US Justice Department’s antitrust division. Baer called the price-fixing conspiracy “cynical misconduct”. Publishers that the Justice Department said conspired with Apple include Lagardere SCA’s Hachette Book Group Inc, News Corp’s HarperCollins Publishers LLC, Penguin Group Inc, CBS Corp’s Simon & Schuster Inc and Verlagsgruppe Georg von Holtzbrinck GmbH’s Macmillan. On 17 February, the appeals court in New York upheld the proposed settlement, which had been challenged by an ebooks purchaser.
Apple did not immediately respond to requests for comment. The Justice Department accused Apple of colluding with the five publishers as the Silicon Valley giant was launching its iPad in early 2010 and was seeking to break up Amazon.com’s low-cost dominance in the digital book market.
Writer - Liam McClelland | @Liamicy