Bloomberg said in a report that electronic book buyers in the US will be having an early Christmas this week as they will be receiving a collective $166 million. The payouts stemmed from a price-fixing case settlement with five of the biggest publishing houses in the country, the New York attorney general's office had said.
In a statement, New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman said, "Illegal actions by these publishers forced consumers in New York and across the nation to pay artificially inflated prices for e-books. Companies engaging in such anticompetitive conduct will be punished -- and starting today, those injured by their actions will start to receive full and fair compensation."
Hachette Book Group, HarperCollins Publishers LLC, Simon & Schuster Inc, Pearson Plc's Penguin Group and Verlagsgruppe Georg von Holtzbrinck GmbH's Macmillan unit all decided to settle lawsuits brought about by US states and its territories over price-fixing of electronic books.
According to the website that was established by claims administrator Rust Consulting Inc, all e-book customers of the publishers who are residing in any of the US states, the District of Columbia and five US territories are eligible for a payout. Schneiderman's office said that customers who purchased the e-books from April 1, 2010, to May 21, 2012 could get payouts.
Bloomberg said that the states are still pursuing Apple Inc over the same allegations. The anti-trust case is expected to go on trial this year, and that state attorneys general and consumers are seeking a maximum of $840 million from Apple, according to a court filing in January.
In July of last year, US District Judge Denise Cote in Manhattan has ruled in favor of the US Justice Department and deemed that the Cupertino, California-based company resorted to a scheme with the publihsers in order to drive up prices of e-books. Bloomberg also said that Cote found Apple liable to the state. Apple has already filed an appeal, the news agency said.
