Last summer Apple was found guilty of price fixing in the eBook market in conjunction with five major book publishers. Apple and the publishers conspired to fix the prices of digital books to combat competition from Amazon according to the court. Apple has proposed a settlement in the case that has won preliminary approval.
The settlement will see Apple pay $450 million with $50 million of that amount in attorney fees. The remainder would be paid out to states and consumers. Apple is currently appealing the original decision and if it wins the appeal, it will pay nothing under the settlement. Apple also has an alternate settlement in the works if the case is kicked back on appeal for a retrial.
If the case is retried, Apple will pay $50 million plus $20 million in attorney’s fees. The judge in the case is Denise Cote and she has set the fairness hearing for the final approval of the settlement for November 21. So far states and consumers have recovered $166 million from major publishers including Hachette Book Group, HarperCollins Publishers LLC, Simon & Schuster Inc., Pearson Plc (PSON)’s Penguin Group and the Macmillan unit of Verlagsgruppe Georg von Holtzbrinck GmbH.
via Bloomberg
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