Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) has dined the request of the brand electronics manufacturer- Apple to appeal in the case over e- books price fixing. The decision of the New York 2nd US Circuit Court of Appeals which was made in the year 2015 (June) where the Apple was held guilty of e- book price fixing will now be stand, as stated by the Department of Justice on yesterday, i.e. on 7th day of March. Meaning this, now the Apple will anyhow required to pay out $400 million to the e- book purchasers under its July 2014 agreement promising to settle damages.
It was seen earlier in the year 2012 (April) that the DepaSupreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) rtment of Justice had filed a civil antitrust lawsuit where the Apple was made accused of conspiring to fix e- book prices with five publishers, namely, Holtzbrinck Publishers, HarperCollins Publishers, Hachette Book Groups, Penguin Group and Simon & Schuster. It was claimed in the suit that the said actions by the Apple and the publishers have prevented other e- book sellers from competing on price, as such increasing the prices that consumers had to pay for e- books.
It was also claimed in the sad civil suit by the Department of Justice, that the accused- Apple and the Publishers of working together to set e- book prices and break Amazon’s market dominance with its Kindle e- book reader. Also it was claimed that the said accused(s) were forcing the Amazon to move to an agency model where publishers rather than retailers set prices and ‘caused e- book consumers to pay tens of millions of dollars more for e- books than they otherwise would have paid’.
Now, the $400 million from Apple as damages to be paid out in the form of credits that e- book buyers can use for future purchases. Also in addition, the company is required to pay $50 million in attorneys’ fees for the counsel of plaintiff. Thus, the $166 million is added with the $450 million, and the said will be the full computed damages against Apple.
Adv. Faim Khalilkhan Pathan