Apple, publishers sued for alleged price fixing: report
A man navigates through the new iPad 2 during its launch in the Philippines at an Apple store. Five book publishers and computer manufacturer Apple have been sued for allegedly colluding to drive up the price of e-books, lawyers for the plaintiffs said.
Five book publishers and computer manufacturer Apple have been sued for allegedly colluding to drive up the price of e-books, lawyers for the plaintiffs said.
The class-action suit, filed in the US District Court here, claims HarperCollins, Hachette, Macmillan, Penguin and Simon & Schuster had worked with Apple to break Internet retailer Amazon.coms discount pricing strategy and help Apples iPad compete with the Kindle marketed by Amazon.
According to the suit, the publishers believed that Amazons popular Kindle e-reader device and the companys discounted pricing for e-books would increase the adoption of e-books, and feared Amazons discounted pricing structure would permanently set consumer expectations for lower prices, even for other e-reader devices.
"Fortunately for the publishers, they had a co-conspirator as terrified as they were over Amazons popularity and pricing structure, and that was Apple," said Steve Berman, an attorney representing consumers.
"We intend to prove that Apple needed a way to neutralize Amazons Kindle before its popularity could challenge the upcoming introduction of the iPad, a device Apple intended to compete as an e-reader," Berman added.
The complaint claims that the five publishing houses forced Amazon to abandon its discount pricing and adhere to a new agency model, in which publishers set prices and extinguished competition so that retailers such as Amazon could no longer offer lower prices for e-books.
A woman holds the new Amazon Kindle 2 at its launch in New York City. Five book publishers and computer manufacturer Apple have been sued for allegedly colluding to drive up the price of e-books, lawyers for the plaintiffs said.
If Amazon attempted to sell e-books below the publisher-set levels, the publishers would simply deny Amazon access to the title, the complaint claims.The defendant publishers control 85 percent of the most popular fiction and non-fiction titles.
According to the lawsuit, Apple and publishers were concerned that Amazons $9.99 uniform pricing for bestsellers would create market pressures for other e-booksellers -- including Apple -- to do the same, cutting into profitability.
The named plaintiffs included Anthony Petru, a resident of Oakland, California, and Marcus Mathis, a resident of Natchez, Mississippi.
The law firm Hagens Berman, which posted the complaint on its website, announced the filing of the suit on August 9.
(c) 2011 AFP
-
From lemons to lemonade: Reaction uses carbon dioxide to make carbon-based semiconductor,
32 comments
-
Thioridazine kills cancer stem cells in human while avoiding toxic side-effects of conventional cancer treatments,
3 comments
-
SpaceX private rocket blasts off for space station (Update),
42 comments
-
Climate scientists say they have solved riddle of rising sea,
31 comments
-
SpaceX capsule has 'new car' smell, astronauts say (Update),
2 comments
-
Need a rigid insulation material???
14 hours ago
-
magnets or EMF in car bumpers to protect from fender bender
May 26, 2012
-
length of wire in a coil of known dimensions?
May 25, 2012
-
India Engineering Powerhouse
May 25, 2012
-
electromagnet core dereference between hard and soft iron
May 25, 2012
-
Measuring water pressure in an open tank
May 24, 2012
- More from Physics Forums - General Engineering
More news stories
Browser wars flare in mobile space
The browser wars are heating up again, but this time the fight is for dominance of the mobile Internet.
7 hours ago |
5 / 5 (1) |
3
Probability of contamination from severe nuclear reactor accidents is higher than expected: study
Catastrophic nuclear accidents such as the core meltdowns in Chernobyl and Fukushima are more likely to happen than previously assumed. Based on the operating hours of all civil nuclear reactors and the number ...
Technology / Energy & Green Tech
May 22, 2012 |
3.6 / 5 (22) |
56
|
SpotterRF debuts Radar Backpack Kit (w/ Video)
(Phys.org) -- SpotterRF has announced a special radar backpack kit designed to enhance situational awareness for soldiers on the ground. The company says its special radar is designed for warfighters as part ...
Technology / Hi Tech & Innovation
May 26, 2012 |
5 / 5 (5) |
13
|
HyperSolar shows dirty water no barrier to power world
(Phys.org) -- The Santa Barbara, California, company, HyperSolar, is set to transparently share the ups and downs of its research experiences toward the company’s ultimate vision, successfully producing ...
Technology / Energy & Green Tech
May 24, 2012 |
4.8 / 5 (16) |
17
|
Tesla to launch electric sedan in US on June 22
Tesla Motors said Tuesday it would begin deliveries of "the world's first premium electric sedan" on June 22, slightly ahead of schedule.
Technology / Energy & Green Tech
May 22, 2012 |
4.5 / 5 (12) |
18
Nvidia trumpets Tegra 3 phone design wins for 2012
(Phys.org) -- Nvidia’s competitive war paint has a name, Tegra 3. On the heels of Nvidia announcements about lowering costs of its Tegra 3 processors and Nvidia-enabled tablets running Android Ice Cream ...
Scientist: Evolution debate will soon be history
(AP) -- Richard Leakey predicts skepticism over evolution will soon be history. Not that the avowed atheist has any doubts himself.
Dell tablet leak: 10.1-inch display, two-battery choice
(Phys.org) -- Headline after headline talks about vendors’ tablets in the wings as likely number-one contenders for the iPad. Such claims have justifiably been taken with a grain of salt, considering ...
Keep food safety in mind this memorial day weekend
(HealthDay) -- Picnics, parades and cookouts are as much a part of Memorial Day weekend as tributes to the United States' war veterans.
Social welfare cuts ultimately come with heavy price, researchers say
(Phys.org) -- Slashing government funding for Medicaid, food stamps and other programs that serve the poor – while politically popular with some lawmakers and many conservatives – may do more harm ...
Is a classical electrodynamics law incompatible with special relativity?
(Phys.org) -- The laws of classical electromagnetism that were developed in the 19th century are the same laws that scientists use today. They include Maxwell’s four equations along with the Lorentz la ...
Aug 13, 2011
Rank: 5 / 5 (4)
Paperbacks used to sell for $6.99 to $7.99, though I haven't checked in a while.
At any rate, buying a digital copy of a book for even $9.99 is robbery. Clearly, 1's and 0's don't cost much of anything, particularly since people pay so much for the "Reader" anyway.
The IT companies and publishers are just taking the Jetson's technology, and instead of using it to liberate people, they've turned it into another excuse to fleece everyone.
Aug 14, 2011
Rank: not rated yet
Aug 15, 2011
Rank: not rated yet
That's the sort of business approach and ethics that will drive Joe public straight to Amazon and their Kindle.
Price fixing is illegal within the UK, is it the same for the U.S?
Aug 15, 2011
Rank: not rated yet
...yes, it is the same.
The problem I see here is that the Apple iPad did not THEN yet exist, but several different eReaders did AND Apple kept the pricing that existed in the common marketplace. Further Apple's history would indicate a firm that 'got in trouble' in other industries for keeping the prices low (Record/music sales) not raising prices.
Nevertheless, if this is true and proven then they should all be spanked.
word-to-ya-muthas