Judge OKs Class Action Suit Against Apple For E-Book Price Fixing

An anonymous reader writes "Reuters reports: 'A federal judge in New York granted class certification on Friday to a group of consumers who sued Apple Inc for conspiring with five major publishers to fix e-book prices in violation of antitrust law....The plaintiffs are seeking more than $800 million in damages.' The trial will probably be in July or September. The judge who granted class certification, Denise Cote, ruled in 2013 that Apple was guilty of colluding with other publishers to raise the price of e-books and to force Amazon.com to do the same."

Comments

Anybody should be able to open an e-book shop

[Anonymous Coward]

The fact that anybody can't is quite disturbing. Obviously there is a major problem with the system and a class action lawsuit should go forward. The publishers who are forcing DRM and giving discriminatory pricing should be prohibited.

Re: Anybody should be able to open an e-book shop

[Anonymous Coward]

What about the AUTHORS! Seems that greed and corporate collusion has forgotten the actual content creators. Why don't authors self publish, shouldn't be too diffucult with to days technology? Cut out the middle man altogether. But if too many start doing that it'll probably be outlawed.

800MM seems impossibly low

[kramerd]

Anyone you accuse of participating in a cartel should be sued for dissolution, not monetary damages.

Re:800MM seems impossibly low

[rtb61]

It is a real shame that in the US, your comment is not satire but a reflection of reality. So who will be the Apple political stooges, I guess we will just have to wait and see.

Re:Books vs Apps

[wiredlogic]

Minimum price agreements were widely used in the heyday of CDs. The practice was upheld by courts.