From early reports, no one believed Apple and its gang of merry publishers would lose a law suit over ebook price fixing. http://articles.latimes.com/2012/apr/14/business/la-fi-apple-antitrust-20120414 An early cadre of experts confidently predicted Apple victory. http://venturebeat.com/2012/04/12/apple-price-fixing/ With righteous indignation, Apple demanded its day in court. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/04/19/apple-trial-ebook_n_1435662.html
Most expected some relatively minor back room settlements, at the worst. http://www.wired.com/business/2012/03/justice-dept-threatens-apple-publishers-with-price-fixing-lawsuits-report/
That was, until publishers fell away paying rather hefty settlements. http://www.techradar.com/us/news/computing/apple/apple-left-alone-to-fight-ebook-price-fixing-suit-as-macmillan-settles-1130485
Then Apple and every publisher remaining in the case were found guilty of Sherman antitrust violations. Apple paid a $166 M fine. And Wiki padded its archives with rich details about Apple’s ongoing litigation. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_Inc._litigation and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_v._Apple_Inc.
Today Apple settled parallel price fixing charges in Europe. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/mediatechnologyandtelecoms/electronics/9217264/Apple-offers-to-settle-ebook-price-fixing-row-in-Europe-but-will-fight-case-in-the-US.html
But there’s still more to come in this story. The US District Court decision to place a monitor to oversee Apple’s pricing and management of publishers (read more at http://hamiltonfinanceservices.com/?p=1042) received approval from the US Court of Appeals. Now that monitor stands fully in place and at the ready to keep (untrustworthy) Apple away from more ebook price-fixing.
The result of the “radical monitoring decision” (as Apple called it, in its legal brief to appeal the monitoring decision) suggests bad news for Apple as the class action lawsuit for price fixing of its ebooks passes another legal hurdle. Instead of just the federal and numerous state attorney generals hounding Apple Inc., hundreds of angry customers have been certified to proceed with a class action case this coming July or so. http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/03/29/us-apple-ebooks-idUSBREA2R1Y120140329
The now-certified class for the big suit makes Apple’s earlier $166 M settlement for price fixing look trivial, say HFS analysts. These analysts expect Apple to fight tooth and nail over every legal inch, and no one today can predict where that combat might lead, although early indications suggest that US District Judge Denise Cote, who now sits on the class action case, has already demonstrated both her grasp of the legal complexities and her disdain for Apple’s lack of contrition. HFS will continue reporting on this ‘made for bloggers’ legal pageantry as the parade progresses.
As far as you can tell, who will prevail in the end? Customers, Apple, US and European governments? What do you think?
