Judge Finds That Apple Conspired To Raise E-book Prices

On July 10, 2013, Judge Denise Cote of the Southern District of New York issued a 160-page opinion holding that Apple conspired with five book publishers to raise e-book prices and eliminate retail price competition in violation of Section 1 of the Sherman Act and several relevant state statutes. United States v. Apple Inc., case number 12-civ-2826 (DLC). The five publishers - Hatchett, HarperCollins, Macmillan, Penguin and Simon & Schuester - had all previously settled with the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ).

The opinion stated that as Apple prepared to launch its iPad to the public and sought to concurrently enter the e-book market with its iBookstore, it met with the publishers and agreed to provide them with anagency model for e-book pricing that allowed the publishers to set the prices of the e-books themselves, subject to certain price caps. Apple's agreements with the...