Yesterday, the US Court of Appeals in New York had rejected Apple Inc's last-ditch effort to stop its e-book buyers from suing the company as a group ahead of its scheduled July 14 trial. Bloomberg said that the Cupertino, California-based company have failed to convince the appeals court to reverse the decision made by US District Judge Denise Cote in Manhattan last year. The news agency said the ruling came after a nonjury trial in antitrust cases that were filed by the US Justice Department and 33 states and territories.
Although the Justice Department did not seek for damages and had only sought corrective orders, Cote said that consumers in the states and territories who did not take part in the trial could pursue their claims together as a class action. Apple had said in its request to the appeals court that by allowing ts e-book customers to file for claims, it could result a windfall to millions of other customers who were not harmed.
The litigation regarding Apple's e-book prices started in April 2012, when the company, along with five of the biggest publishers in the US, had been sued by the country in April 2012 over allegations that the iPad maker had forced the publishers to sign agreements that would have the latter sell digital versions of its books under a pricing model that was deemed expensive. According to the complaint, the agency pricing model will have publishers and not retailers dictate the book prices, with Apple pocketing 30% of the sales.
The US government argued that the intention was to force the number one e-book seller in the world, Amazon.com, to change its pricing model. Around the time of the complaint, Amazon's electronic versions of best-selling books were priced at $9.99, which was reportedly often below the cost.
When Bloomberg asked Apple representatives for comment about the appeals court decision, they have yet to respond to the email request. Lawyer Ted Boutrous for Apple also did not return request for comment about the appeals court decision.
