VoluntaryAmerican
09-11-2012, 07:58 AM
A federal court has approved a settlement agreement reached between the U.S. Department of Justice and three book publishers accused of conspiring with Apple to fix e-book prices.
The DOJ filed suit against Apple and five of the country's largest book publishers in April and accused the group of antitrust violations. Immediately after filing the complaint, the government announced that it had reached a settlement with three of the five accused publishers: Hachette Book Group, HarperCollins Publishers, and Simon & Schuster (owned by CBS, parent company of CNET).
As part of that settlement, the three e-book publishers agreed to nullify their e-book contracts with Apple, stop "placing constraints" on retailers' ability to offer discounts to consumers for two years, stop sharing "competitively sensitive information" with competitors for five years, and to implement an "antitrust compliance program." In return, the government agreed to drop the charges against them.
Apple, Macmillan Publishers (owned by Germany's Verlagsgruppe Georg von Holtzbrinck holding company), and Pearson PLC's Penguin Group say they've done nothing wrong and have chosen to fight the charges in court instead of settling. An Apple representative was not immediately available for comment. We'll update as soon as we hear back.
Continue reading:
http://news.cnet.com/8301-1023_3-57507634-93/court-oks-feds-e-book-settlement-with-publishers/
The DOJ filed suit against Apple and five of the country's largest book publishers in April and accused the group of antitrust violations. Immediately after filing the complaint, the government announced that it had reached a settlement with three of the five accused publishers: Hachette Book Group, HarperCollins Publishers, and Simon & Schuster (owned by CBS, parent company of CNET).
As part of that settlement, the three e-book publishers agreed to nullify their e-book contracts with Apple, stop "placing constraints" on retailers' ability to offer discounts to consumers for two years, stop sharing "competitively sensitive information" with competitors for five years, and to implement an "antitrust compliance program." In return, the government agreed to drop the charges against them.
Apple, Macmillan Publishers (owned by Germany's Verlagsgruppe Georg von Holtzbrinck holding company), and Pearson PLC's Penguin Group say they've done nothing wrong and have chosen to fight the charges in court instead of settling. An Apple representative was not immediately available for comment. We'll update as soon as we hear back.
Continue reading:
http://news.cnet.com/8301-1023_3-57507634-93/court-oks-feds-e-book-settlement-with-publishers/