We could pretend Apple did nothing bad, but they actually messed around with a critical segment of the whole culture: e-books. They are involved in a price fixing scandal and colluding with five major US publishers to increase book prices. The US District Judge Denise Cote gave approval to Apple’s payment of $450 million in settlement claims.
The free is divided into $400 million and $50 million to lawyers. At some point Apple was supposed to pay as little as $70 million and the judge wasn’t happy with that. It all began in 2012, when Apple was caught price fixing books and was accused of conspiring with Hachette, Penguin, Random House, HarperCollins and Simon & Schuster, in order to drive down prices of ebooks and loosen Amazon’s grip on the market.
The publishers will also have to pay their dues, while Apple got this almost half a billion “fine”. Appeals could overturn the judge’s ruling and Apple may end up paying the above mentioned amount of 70 million. However, consumers can still sue Apple separately, if they want, but they will need to get more details in order to proceed. I feel this story should be covered in the news more…
