A federal judge in Manhattan ruled July 10 that Apple Inc. had violated antitrust laws by attempting to fix the prices of electronic books.
The lawsuit stemmed from a two-year investigation led by Connecticut Attorney General George Jepsen, the attorney general from Texas and the U.S. Department of Justice.
Connecticut, along with 32 other states, filed the lawsuit in April 2012 alleging Apple and five major publishers had conspired to fix the prices of ebooks, forcing customers to overpay. Under the model Apple received 30 percent of the purchase price.
Each of the five publishers included in the lawsuit settled before the case went to trail. The publishers included Hachette, HarperCollins, Simon & Schuster, Macmillan and Penguin.
“Consumers are entitled to a fair, open and competitive marketplace,” Jepsen said in May when the last publisher settled. “This agreement is yet another step toward providing restitution to those consumers who were harmed by alleged price-fixing within the eBook market and will further ensure that, going forward, consumers benefit from fair competition in the sale of eBooks.”
Through the publishers’ settlements, consumers were estimated to receive $164 million in compensation. Connecticut residents were set to receive $3 million as of May. It is unknown how much Apple will be fined following the court ruling.
