Apple Sued Over Claims It Fixed E-Book Prices

[marmar]

(Bloomberg) Apple Inc. (AAPL), in connection with last year’s introduction of the iPad, colluded with News Corp. (NWSA)’s HarperCollins Publishers unit and four other publishers to fix prices of electronic books, according to a lawsuit.

Apple, threatened by Amazon.com Inc. (AMZN)’s Kindle e-book reader and its potential to distribute other digital media, agreed with the publishers on or before January 2010 to announce a so-called agency model to “force the e-book sales model to be entirely restructured,” according to the complaint filed yesterday in federal court in Oakland, California.

The traditional “brick-and-mortar” publishers agreed to the price-fixing because they were threatened by Amazon’s “pro- consumer” e-book titles priced at $9.99, according to the suit.

“Fortunately for the publishers, they had a co-conspirator as terrified as they were over Amazon’s popularity and pricing structure, and that was Apple,” Steve Berman, an attorney representing consumers in the case, said in an e-mailed statement. ........(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-08-10/apple-publishers-sued-over-claims-they-fixed-prices-of-electronic-books.html

[meegbear]

1. It'll be interesting to see how this turns out ...

with the popularity of e-media on the rise, this will certainly determine how other forms of media will be pay structured.

[Skink]

2. It's amazon that needs to be sued.

They as one company set the prices in many industries and avoid paying taxes wherever possible.

[Lone_Star_Dem]

3. This lawsuit will set the bar for many things in the future.

I'm highly interested in the outcome.

[marions ghost]

4. This is one to watch

the e-book wars are heating up...and it's gonna be ugly.

And then it's also the libraries vs the publishers.

[Dappleganger]

5. I know of one major author who is exploring the idea of completely self-publishing...

and no doubt there are many more who would follow suit if it works for her (Anne Rice).

[Skink]

6. JK Rowling is launching her own sight.

[Dappleganger]

7. Yes, I forgot about her.

I have no doubt that others will follow her lead, too. I think Stephen King is another who is contemplating this. I follow Anne Rice on FB and she has been actively discussing the possibilities with her FB friends for several weeks now, sometimes a few posts a day on the topic. She just completed a new book for a new series.