The US Department of Justice is suing technology giant Apple and major book publishers over the pricing of e-books. The US accuses Apple and Hachette, HarperCollins, Macmillan, Simon and Schuster and Penguin of colluding over the prices of e-books they sell.
This lawsuit is over the firms‘ move to the agency model where publishers rather than sellers set prices. However, Hachette, HarperCollins and Simon, and Schuster have already settled.
The case will proceed against Apple, Macmillan and Penguin “for conspiring to end e-book retailers’ freedom to compete on price”, the Justice Department said. “As a result of this alleged conspiracy, we believe that consumers paid millions of dollars more for some of the most popular titles,” Attorney General Eric Holder said.
Apple, which sells books through its iBooks platform on the iPad and iPhone, declined to comment.
Hachette said that it remained “confident that we did not violate the anti-trust laws” while adding it “reluctantly” joined the settlement.
However, Macmillan‘s chief executive, John Sargent, said; “the terms the DOJ demanded were too onerous” to settle and would allow Amazon “to recover the monopoly position it had been building before our switch to the agency model”.
Meanwhile, the European Commission has also been probing e-book price fixing.
(아주경제 앤드류 이 기자)
This lawsuit is over the firms‘ move to the agency model where publishers rather than sellers set prices. However, Hachette, HarperCollins and Simon, and Schuster have already settled.
The case will proceed against Apple, Macmillan and Penguin “for conspiring to end e-book retailers’ freedom to compete on price”, the Justice Department said. “As a result of this alleged conspiracy, we believe that consumers paid millions of dollars more for some of the most popular titles,” Attorney General Eric Holder said.
Apple, which sells books through its iBooks platform on the iPad and iPhone, declined to comment.
Hachette said that it remained “confident that we did not violate the anti-trust laws” while adding it “reluctantly” joined the settlement.
However, Macmillan‘s chief executive, John Sargent, said; “the terms the DOJ demanded were too onerous” to settle and would allow Amazon “to recover the monopoly position it had been building before our switch to the agency model”.
Meanwhile, the European Commission has also been probing e-book price fixing.
(아주경제 앤드류 이 기자)
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