The United State Justice Department has filed an anti-trust lawsuit against Apple and five major publishers over allegations of E-book price fixing. The lawsuit was filed on Wednesday in U.S. District Court in Manhattan, New York and asserts publishers Simon & Schuster, HarperCollins, MacMillan, Hachette, and Pearson agreed to fix the price of e-books ahead of the debut of Apple’s iPad in 2010 as e-books gained popularity with the rise of Amazon’s Kindle in 2007. At a press conference on Wednesday, Attorney General Eric Holder said, “Beginning in the summer of 2009, we allege that executives at the highest levels of the companies included in today’s lawsuit – concerned that e-book sellers had reduced prices – worked together to eliminate competition among stores selling e-books, ultimately increasing prices for consumers. As a result of this alleged conspiracy, we believe that consumers paid millions of dollars more for some of the most popular titles.”
Hachette, HarperCollins, and Simon & Schuster have agreed to a proposed settlement, which will need authorization by a U.S. District Court judge in Manhattan, according to Holder. Apple, MacMillan, and Pearson’s Penguin Group, however, have chosen to fight, said Antitrust Division Acting Assistant Attorney General Sharis Pozen. “We will pursue vigorously our claims against those companies to ensure that consumers get the full benefits of the competition they deserve.”
