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Apple Starts To Shell Out $400 Million To Customers In eBook Settlement (cnet.com)
An anonymous reader writes: Starting today, millions of e-book purchasers will get either credits or checks for twice their losses, said legal firm Hagens Berman, which helped litigate the class action lawsuit. CNET reports: "Apple is on the hook for $400 million in damages plus an additional $30 million to pay the legal fees for Hagens Berman and $20 million to the state attorney generals who became involved in the case. On an individual basis, each plaintiff in the suit will receive $1.57 in credit for most e-books they bought and a $6.93 credit for every e-book purchased that was on the New York Times bestseller list. Consumers who purchased e-books from Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Kobo and Apple between April 1, 2010 and May 21, 2012 are eligible to receive credits deposited directly in their accounts or checks sent through the mail. In August 2011, a lawsuit filed by two individuals accused Apple of conspiring to fix e-book prices with five publishers: Hachette Book Group, HarperCollins Publishers, Holtzbrinck Publishers, Penguin Group and Simon and Schuster. The DoJ and the attorneys general of several states joined in with their own suits against the publishers. The lawsuits charged that the actions of Apple and the publishers prevented other e-book sellers from competing on price, thereby increasing the prices that consumers had to pay for e-books. After being found guilty of violating antitrust laws by a U.S. District Judge in 2013 and by an Appeals court in 2015, Apple's request for an appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court was denied this past March, forcing it to settle with the plaintiffs."
On an individual basis, each plaintiff in the suit will receive $1.57 in credit for most e-books they bought and a $6.93 credit for every e-book purchased that was on the New York Times bestseller list.
So clearly, one best seller and three less well received e-books.
It's like when the cell carrier gives settlements for unethical 3rd party billing; except for the attorneys' cuts, it's pretty much all feed for chickens.
Happiness in intelligent people is the rarest thing I know.
Ernest Hemingway
This is the first time I have been part of a class action class and actually gotten anything. Oh, a few times I got "a coupon for $10 off our next widget" or the like. This time I got just over $9.00 posted to Amazon so I can buy a book I guess. Wow, who'd have guessed? I would have thought a 10% off on your next iShiny or something like that that I would never use...
$36.49 for me, didn't even realize I bought that many e-books. Got an email from Amazon, in my junk mail of course.
I received a $64 credit on Amazon today.
I don't read your sig. Why are you reading mine?
I received a $64 credit on Amazon today.
I got and spent my credit today. ;-)
Truth is stranger than fiction, but it is because Fiction is obliged to stick to possibilities; Truth isn't. Mark Twain.
. . . as, for my sins, I originally bought a Nook.
Their ebook settlement guidebook suggests you won't know your balance from the settlement UNTIL you make a purchase. . .
Nice. . .
I used it on "A Love Supreme" by John Coltrane.
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My wife bought shoes.
I don't read your sig. Why are you reading mine?
I think I spend too much time reading e-books.....
who ever listens to a bard?
How do you know how much you received? I got notified by B&N but nothing from Amazon.
APK likes to ask for responses to the same things over and over. Maybe he just likes the responses?
Um, Apple scammed everyone, Amazon was forced to sell books for higher prices. Amazon, B&N, etc didn't break the law, Apple did.
You were scammed by Apple, even if you were buying a book from one of the other sellers.
APK likes to ask for responses to the same things over and over. Maybe he just likes the responses?