The Justice Department’s price-fixing lawsuit against e-book publishers and Apple will go to trial in June 2013, reports “The Washington Post” (http://macte.ch/aIipV). Apple has maintained that it did no wrong and argued to a federal judge last Friday that it wants a speedy trial to defend itself, the article adds.
U.S. Judge Denise Cote set the beginning of trial at June 3, 2013. The Justice Department had requested for the trial to begin near the end of 2013, reports “The Washington Post.”
In April the United States Department of Justice filed an antitrust lawsuit against Apple, Hachette SA, HarperCollins, Macmillan, Penguin and Simon & Schuster in New York district court, claiming collusion over eBook pricing. Apple and Macmillan, which have refused to engage in settlement talks with the Justice Department, deny they colluded to raise prices for digital books. The companies argue that pricing agreements between Apple and publishers enhanced competition in the e-book industry, which was dominated by Amazon.
The brouhaha centers on Apple’s move to change the way that publishers charged for e-books as it prepared to introduce its first iPad in 2010. Traditionally, publishers sold books to retailers for roughly half of the recommended cover price.
Under that “wholesale model,” booksellers were then free to offer those books to customers for less than the cover price if they wished.
Apple suggested moving to an “agency model,” under which the publishers would set the price of the book and Apple would take a 30% cut. However, Apple also insisted that publishers couldn’t let rival retailers sell the same book at a lower price.
