July 16, 2014: Apple agrees to pay $ 450 million to resolve the antitrust case of the Ministry of Justice against the Company at the Prices of Electronic Books in the iBooks store. In court proceedings, Apple stood charged with five main publishers of books on the determination of digital book prices.
After all five publishers resolved their claims outside the court, Apple became one once in court. Settlement of an action for electronic books closed a book on the wrong chapter in Apple history.
History of the action of iBooks
Tea United States v. Apple Inc. The antimonopoly case was filed in April 2012. Apple, a group of books Hachette Book, Harpercollins, Macmillan Publishers, Penguin and Simon & Schuster conspiracy to maintain high electronic book prizes.
This cam responsible for Amazon charges $ 9.99 for many popular books about their kindle e -book reader. These upset publishers who said the low price for digital books reduced their profit margins. Instead, Apple planned to sell new books for $ 12.99 to $ 14.99 through its channels. This would result in more money for both publishers and Apple.
Soon after the iPad revealed, damaging evidence appeared in the form of an interview between Apple’s CEO Steve Jobs and technology journalist Walt Mossberg. Mossberg asked why any customer would agree to spend $ 14.99 per Apple e-book when they could buy Sam from Amazon for $ 9.99.
“It won’t be that way,” Jobs replied.
“Will you not be $ 14.99, or will it not be $ 9.99?” Mossberg asked.
“The prices will be the same,” Jobs said. “Publishers actually hold their books from Amazon because they are not happy.”
Apple levels an e -book action to avoid harmful court
Apple remained a little player on the front of the e-book, with a small market share compared to Amazon. However, the threat that Apple representatives (especially after the popularity of iTunes as a music distributor) meant the subtitles of iBooks.
In July 2013, the American district of Denise Denise Cote decided that Apple was legible to prevent the publishers from preventing the e-book competition. The exam should be in August 2014 in August.
Finally, Apple passed and agreed to pay $ 450 million to go to court. However, the company continued to claim that it did nothing wrong and will continue to appeal.
In addition to payment, the court also appointed an antitrust monitor that could monitor Apple’s activities, which in the coming years caused Cupertino any headaches.
(Tagstotranslate) Apple’s courts