Apple Stock News
On August 9th, 2011, a class-action lawsuit was filed against Apple, Inc. and five of the top book publishers in the United States. The suit was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California. Hagens Berman, the firm that filed the lawsuit, claimed that Apple knowingly colluded with five top book publishers to illegally fix the price of e-books, causing prices to increase as much as 50%.
It is believed that Apple and the publishers had an agreement that Apple would sell e-books in its app store, allowing publishers to set the price of the book with Apple taking a 30% commission. Since publishers control the book distribution, they would have the power to withhold products from companies like Amazon that set their own prices. The federal antitrust laws that Apple and the publishers allegedly violated included the Sherman Act, the Cartwright Act and the Unfair Competition Act.
In July 2014, it was decided that, pending the Second Circuit Court’s ruling on Apple Inc.’s appeal, the company would be required to pay a settlement of $400 million to consumers. The Second Circuit denied Apple’s appeal in June 2015, and attorneys are now working to bring the settlement to consumers in a speedy and efficient process. They are hopeful that consumers will be compensated for their losses by the fall of 2016.
