“Victory
for millions of consumers”
The judge in New York considered it to be proven that the publishers worked together
to limit competition and to keep prices higher, and that Apple played a central
role in all this. “Without Apple’s orchestration of this conspiracy, it
would not have succeeded as it did in the spring of 2010”, she said. In the
verdict of 159 pages long she ruled that the “conspiracy” lead to the rise in
prices for a number of books, from 9.99 to 12.99 or 14.99 dollar per book.
“This
result is a victory for millions of consumers who choose to read books
electronically”, said Bill Baer, chief of the antitrust department of the
American Justice Department. “This decision by the court is a critical step in
undoing the harm caused by Apple’s illegal actions.”
The
conviction is only the first step in the process: next will be a new
trial to decide whether Apple should pay compensation and if so, how much. The
publishers get off in this case, because they already settled with the federal
government.
Apple to
appeal
Apple has
always denied it broke any rules: “When we introduced the iBookstore in
2010, we gave customers more choice, injecting much needed innovation and
competition into the market, breaking Amazon’s monopolistic grip on the
publishing industry. We’ve done nothing wrong”, said Apple through spokesman
Tom Neumayr. The company has already decided to appeal the decision.
The European Commission had earlier reprimanded Apple and five publishers about
illegal price fixing of eBooks. Back then the parties involved decided to
settle.
