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Justice Department Calls Apple the "Ringmaster" In e-book Price Fixing Case
An anonymous reader writes "Back in April 2012, the U.S. Justice Department filed an antitrust lawsuit against Apple and a number of publishers for allegedly colluding to raise the price of e-books on the iBookstore. As part of its investigation into Apple's actions, the Justice Department collected evidence which it claims demonstrates that Apple was the 'ringmaster' in a price fixing conspiracy. Specifically, the Justice Department claims that Apple wielded its power in the mobile app market to coerce publishers to agree to Apple's terms for iBookstore pricing."
Did you not read the article? Prices went up. Sellers agreed to only sell on an agency basis and not a wholesale basis. Please tell me how this is good for consumers? And the reason prices went up? Apple colluded with publishers to remove their books from Amazon if Amazon would not agree to sell at a higher price. How is that not price-fixing?
The real "Libtards" are the Libertarians!
The collusion and price fixing was not between the publishers. The collusion and price fixing was the switch to the agency model and the guarantee that nobody could sell books to the public for a lower price than Apple. Amazon was using it's clout to force prices down. Apple was using it's clout to force prices up - for EVERYONE. As to the anti-trust aspect - there is no law against being the biggest at something. There is no law against being a monopoly at something. There IS a law against using the fact that you are dominant in one area to use anti-competitive tactics in a different area. It does not matter at all even if Apple had 0% of the ebook market. What mattered is that they used there dominant position in one market (mobile apps and iTunes) to make it impossible for anyone to compete with them in a different market (ebooks). How did they make it impossible to compete? By fixing the price.
Are you really that stupid? Price fixing is when a MINIMUM price to the public for A PARTICULAR ITEM has been set. Since two publishers do NOT sell the same books, how could they possibly be in collusion? The price was fixed because Apple had a deal that NOBODY could sell to the public at a price lower than they could. The collusion was between Apple and the individual publishers. It was collusion because Apple said 'We can sell all the books you like, at a higher price than you are getting now. Stop wholesaling to everyone else and switch to the agency model. And once you do that, make sure nobody can sell your book at a lower price than we can'. If you can't see what is wrong with that, there really is no hope for you.
The point is not that 'Book A' costs exactly the same as 'Book B'. The point is that NOBODY can sell 'Book A' for a lower price than anyone else.
Price fixing does not require a monopoly to be illegal. The FTC routinely targets price fixing in the DRAM market and there is no monopoly in that highly competitive market. In fact there have been at least 3 lawsuits by the FTC that I'm aware of that targeted price fixing in the DRAM market.
All your other arguments are meaningless against that one simple fact. Price fixing in collusion with others to force set prices in a market is illegal and has been for a very long time. Stop being a bloody fanboi, Apple colluded with the publishers and as a result eBook prices went up significantly. It's Apple's collusion that caused eBook prices to rise above the pricing for dead tree versions. If you had purchased eBook's before Apple's illegal market manipulation you would know that you could routinely purchase eBooks for less than half the paper price and after the manipulation paper was often cheaper. That's the height of market manipulation, This market manipulation cost the American book purchasers Billions. Apple shouldn't just have to pay money, the people behind it should be given prison terms.