Apple Inc. is facing another kind of lawsuit against the states of America for conspiring with book publishers that ended in increase of electronic book prices. On Monday, the Supreme Court rejected Apple Inc.'s appeal that leads to the company paying a massive amount of price to settle.
Reuters wrote that Apple will have to pay $450 million as a settlement money after the Supreme Court declined to hear the company's appeal in considering the conspiracy it made with five publishers. The decision came from the June 2015 ruling of New York-based 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals where Apple violated federal anti trust laws. The 2nd U.S. Circuit Court's ruling is preceded by 2013's decision by U.S. District Judge Denise Cote citing that Apple played a central role in raising e-book prices. They added that the e-book prices increased from $12.99 for iBookstore against $9.99 charged by Amazon.
Denise Cote also found that Apple persuaded five of the biggest publishers to shift the system under which they would set the price as reported by Bloomberg. This shift eventually led to a 40% increase in the price of e-book bestsellers. Cote said that Apple founder, Steve Jobs, was asked on the difference between Amazon and iBookstore prices. Cote said "Jobs paused and with a knowing nod responded, 'The price will be the same,' and explained that 'publishers are actually withholding their books from Amazon because they are not happy,'"
Back in the settlement, Apple has agreed to pay a total of $450 million as the Justice Department and 33 states originally sued them. According to La Times, $400 million of these money are going to the e-book consumers while the $50 million is allocated for the attorney's legal fees and payment to the states who sued.
Apple Inc. has specifically been accused of conspiracy with five publishers namely, Hachette Book Group Inc., HarperCollins Publishers LLC, Simon & Schuster Inc., Pearson Plc's Penguin Group and Verlagsgruppe Georg von Holtzbrinck GmbH.
