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DoJ Files Suit Against Apple, Ebook Publishers

Posted by Unknown on from the project-gutenberg-accused-of-price-fixing dept.

forkfail writes "The Department of Justice has filed suit against Apple and a number of book publishers, including Hachette SA, HarperCollins, Macmillan, Penguin and Simon & Schuster, claiming that they worked in collusion to artificially rig prices on eBooks."

5 of 235 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Having solved all other problems by oodaloop · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I think the DoJ may be able to do more than one thing at a time.

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  2. I hope they get raked over the coals for this by Golgafrinchan · · Score: 5, Insightful
    This was such a blatant price-fixing scheme among the publishers that it's surprising to me that it took the DOJ this long to take action. That said, based on what I've read I'm not completely convinced of the extent to which Apple was involved in this. Yes, they agreed to the new agency pricing model, but it seems to me that they could try to argue, "Hey -- the publishers came to us with this idea. We didn't know they wanted to go that route to reduce competition and put pressure on Amazon! Honest!" But if there's a paper trail mentioning Amazon, I think Apple is toast.

    And regardless, I hope the publishers get crushed on this one. While I won't go so far as to suggest that they don't serve any useful purpose anymore (as some people do), they _are_ dinosaurs and need to be dragged into 21st century competition. This should do it.

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    1. Re:I hope they get raked over the coals for this by k4hg · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Apple will not be toast.

      Worst case they pay a small (for them) fine without admitting wrongdoing, and promise never to do it again. What happens then?

      Well, Apple can sell their books at cost or below because their profit comes from hardware. The iTunes store is a tiny blip in Apple's revenue, and ebooks a small part of that tiny bit. The publishers can raise the price Apple, Amazon, and others pay for ebooks, and will to preserve their income. Amazon gives away their hardware at cost, so somewhere they need to start making profit on media. It is widely believed that Amazon is selling many books below publisher's cost in order to drive others out of the business. Once it is clear that Apple can (and will because they have lost the agency model) match Amazon's prices and is in the ebook business to stay, Amazon won't be so anxious to lose money. Then prices will come back to where they have been, maybe even higher.

      Apple still breaks records every quarter, Amazon chugs along on its slow growth curve, the publishers keep making some money, and 99% of authors still starve. Nothing's going to change.

  3. Re:Really? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Well. Since ebooks seem to be priced at higher than print book prices....no. no they are not cheap at all.

  4. Re:Having solved all other problems by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    It has nothing to do with whoever is in office. The US has no control over an internationally traded commodity and never will. The US can only *temporarily* affect the market. The US can dump several million barrels on the market and OPEC will just cut production the same amount. No effect. So regardless of which party you hate they can do nothing and anyone claiming they can is a liar.

    Until the US can import no oil at all they are subject to the international price and even then I am not certain though I would think you would have more power to control domestic prices if it is all internal. Now the subsidies are another matter, but I don't know enough about them to know whether they are having an effect, positive or negative, on domestic oil prices.