Friday, March 29, 2024

U.S. Sues Apple, Publishers Over E-Book Pricing

Datamation content and product recommendations are editorially independent. We may make money when you click on links to our partners. Learn More.

Wall Street Journal: The U.S. Department of Justice has filed an antitrust lawsuit against Apple and five of the country’s largest publishing companies: Simon & Schuster, HarperCollins, Hachette, Pearson PLC’s Penguin Group (USA) and Macmillan. The feds allege that companies colluded on pricing and hindered competition when they all entered into agreements with Apple to switch to an agency pricing model. “Defendants’ ongoing conspiracy and agreement have caused e-book consumers to pay tens of millions of dollars more for e-books than they otherwise would have paid,” charged the lawsuit.

The DOJ lawsuit includes a quote from Steve Jobs, who allegedly said, “We’ll go to [an] agency model, where you set the price, and we get our 30 percent, and yes, the customer pays a little more, but that’s what you want anyway.”

Subscribe to Data Insider

Learn the latest news and best practices about data science, big data analytics, artificial intelligence, data security, and more.

Similar articles

Get the Free Newsletter!

Subscribe to Data Insider for top news, trends & analysis

Latest Articles