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Apple E-book Price-Fixing Trial Begins
An anonymous reader writes "Technology giant Apple is to begin its defence against charges by the US government that it tried to fix the prices of e-books. The iPad-maker is accused of working with publishers in 2009 to set prices in an effort to compete in the e-book market dominated by Amazon. Quotes from Steve Jobs' official biography have been cited as evidence in the case."
They set an artificial floor price through contracts that ensured they can't be undercut by the competition. Price fixing doesn't just refer to the actual price, it refers to setting/fixing of minimum or maximum prices in an industry as well.
Except that's not what's happening here. It's "I'll sell quantities at a higher price you choose at a fixed margin, but you can't sell via anyone else at a lower price or better margin". That's why it's anti-competitive; the new system they put in place prevents their retail competitors from ever competing on price. To me, that seems entirely unreasonable.
The case has nothing to do with that. Do you really think that going to a supplier and saying "I'll buy huge quantities at a reasonable price, but if you sell to someone else for less then I instead get that price" is in any way illegal or even unreasonable?
Apple didnt organize fixed wholesale pricing with publishers. They organized fixed retail pricing via publishers.
Not just illegal.. obviously illegal. The fact that you dont see that tells us something about you...
"His name was James Damore."
Would you leave it to companies like Apple or Google they could, like in this example, brute force their ways on smaller business partners.
When you don't trust your politicians, don't complain here but go voting.
"The likes of Facebook and WhatsApp are free to those whose privacy is of zero value."
I can't believe I need to integrate these ideas for you, but here we go: because the publishers set the price in the agency model, and because all of the major publishers colluded to switch to an agency model simultaneously, and because Apple's deals mandated that Apple always receive the best available price, it was no longer possible for Amazon to ever sell an eBook at a price lower than that offered by Apple.
That is an illegal anticompetitive action that reduces competition.
No kidding!!! What do you say at this point?