Santa Clara, CA: Apple has been ordered to pay $450 million as settlement in an antitrust class action lawsuit alleging price-fixing of e-books. The settlement, originally reached in 2013, went to appeal, but Apple lost and has been ordered to pay in a 2-1 vote by the 2nd U.S. Circuit of Appeals. The judges found Apple responsible for conspiring with book publishers to increase the prices of e-books.
The lawsuit was originally filed in 2012 by the Department of Justice and went to court in 2013. In 2014, Apple agreed to pay $450 million to settle the suit, with most of the funds going to e-book buyers. The agreement was contingent on the outcome of appeal.
In their decision, the justices wrote: "We conclude that the district court correctly decided that Apple orchestrated a conspiracy among the publishers to raise e-book prices." Second Circuit Judge Debra Ann Livingston wrote the conspiracy "unreasonably restrained trade," thereby violating the Sherman Act, a federal antitrust law.
