AppleInsider StaffA lawyer for Apple said that the Cupertino, Calif., company wants to defend itself in court against allegations that it colluded with five major book publishers to fix the price of ebooks provided through the iBookstore, reports Reuters.
Standing by Apple in its pursuit of a separate trial are publishing houses Macmillan, a unit of Verlagsgruppe Georg von Holtzbrinck GmbH, and Penguin Group, which is owned by Pearson.
"Our basic view is that we would like the case to be decided on the merits," said Apple lawyer Daniel Floyd to U.S. District Judge Denise Cote. "We believe that this is not an appropriate case against us and we would like to validate that."
The three remaining publishers that decided not to fight the accusations, News Corp's HarperCollins Publishers Inc, CBS Corp's Simon & Schuster Inc and Lagardere SCA subsidiary Hachette Book Group, settled out of court. Fifteen states and the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico were reportedly in settlement talks with the three publishers.
Shepard Goldfein, a lawyer for HarperCollins, told the court that if all 50 states were to settle, it could impact a class action suit from consumers. The company is apparently hedging its bets and attempting to avoid any additional fallout from the multiple lawsuits.
"There could be something left of the class, or nothing left of the class," Goldfein said.
With the settlement, Apple can no longer practice its "most favored nations" policy that has allowed publishers to name the price of ebooks in return for not selling the products to other resellers like Amazon. The internet sales giant will likely revert back to its original wholesale model, which allows it to set the prices of ebooks at below-cost prices to lure customers.
Hachette and HarperCollins agreed to pay $51 million in restitutions to a group of U.S. states for consumers who bought ebooks under Apple's scrutinized sales model. Simon and Schuster is also looking to enter the settlement a company lawyer said. It is unclear what plans the states have for settlement the money.
The allegations of price fixing are also being studied by the European Commission, and the government body announced that it had received settlement proposals from Apple, Simon & Schuster, Harper Collins, Hachette Livre and Macmillan.
-m.jpg)
Charles Martin
Malcolm Owen
William Gallagher
Christine McKee
Wesley Hilliard
Andrew Orr
18 Comments
Great news! It's good to see Apple taking a firm stand against the bogus charges and allegations brought forth by people who do not know the law.
The current DOJ is one of the most incompetent and amateurish DOJs ever. The guy in charge (Eric Holder) is a complete moron. Somebody should investigate the DOJ, as they are involved in and possibly guilty of far more serious things (murder, gun running to Mexico) than any alleged e-book price fixing, which is peanuts in comparison.
The DOJ also took down two of my favorite poker sites on the net, and I still haven't gotten my money back from one of those sites. Screw the DOJ and screw Eric Holder. The DOJ going after Apple is simply a huge waste of time and of tax payers money. But I guess that's one of the primary goals of the current government, to waste tax payers money.
Paging Perry Mason! Perry Mason... Paging Perry Mason.
/
/
/
Great news! It's good to see Apple taking a firm stand against the bogus charges and allegations brought forth by people who do not know the law.
The current DOJ is one of the most incompetent and amateurish DOJs ever. The guy in charge (Eric Holder) is a complete moron. Somebody should investigate the DOJ, as they are involved in and possibly guilty of far more serious things (murder, gun running to Mexico) than any alleged e-book price fixing, which is peanuts in comparison.
The DOJ also took down two of my favorite poker sites on the net, and I still haven't gotten my money back from one of those sites. Screw the DOJ and screw Eric Holder. The DOJ going after Apple is simply a huge waste of time and of tax payers money. But I guess that's one of the primary goals of the current government, to waste tax payers money.
DoJ always appears incompetent when they pursue cases we don't like (e.g. poker). So I have no problem with your characterization of it, even if the case for going after the poker sites is pretty clear. But Eric Holder is not just a moron but a complete moron? Unless you know him really well, such a personal insult is not only unwarranted but so baseless that it diminishes your arguments.
Back to the issue at stake, Apple's position seems strong when you look at it from their perspective and also from the perspective of a virtual Amazon monopoly. On the other hand, a couple of the publishers folded rather promptly, which suggests that this is another one of those complex cases where no one is truly innocent.
No need to worry about the small stuff that's happening now. Once the e-market being defined and DRM'ed now is daily routine for the masses, all prices will start to go up
Bold move by Apple. This will be entertaining to follow.