U.S. Files Antitrust Lawsuit Against Apple, Hachette

[Typical NYC Lib]

Source: Bloomberg

The U.S. sued Apple Inc. (AAPL), Hachette SA, HarperCollins, Macmillan, Penguin and Simon & Schuster in New York district court, claiming the publishers colluded to fix eBook prices.

CBS Corp. (CBS)’s Simon & Schuster, Lagardère SCA’s Hachette Book Group and News Corp. (NWSA)’s HarperCollins settled their suits today, two people familiar with the matter said.

Apple and Macmillan, which have refused to engage in settlement talks with the Justice Department, deny they colluded to raise prices for digital books, according to people familiar with the matter. They will argue that pricing agreements between Apple and publishers enhanced competition in the e-book industry, which was dominated by Amazon.com Inc. (AMZN)

The Justice Department is probing how Cupertino, California-based Apple changed the way publishers charged for e- books on the iPad, a person familiar with the matter said last month. The Justice Department said it would announce an “unspecified” antitrust settlement today.

Read more: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-04-11/u-s-files-antitrust-lawsuit-against-apple-hachette.html

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Forget China: Now we're taking on GOD!

[Drale]

1. When are they going to file a suit against the oil company's

for price fixing? They are the worst of the worst, yet they continuously get off scott free.

[onehandle]

2. If the publishers lose, Amazon will end up the only eBookseller in the world.

For a while, Amazon will take big losses to get 100% market share. Then they will raise prices back up to whatever they want it to be.

Before this 'price fixing' Amazon had 80% of the eBook market and were well on their way to 100%.

Now they are at 60%.

They're destroying the brick and mortars, but in the eBook world, they don't want the hint of competition.

It's worse than the Walmart model.

Additionally, authors and publishers will suffer. Amazon is making inroads to take over publishing itself.

The written word, as a way of earning, will be under Amazon's thumb forever.

[Skink]

3. Amazon is to big to sue.