A U.S. judge on Friday gave final approval to Apple agreement to pay $450 million to resolve claims it harmed consumers by conspiring with five publishers to raise e-book prices.<\/p>\n
During a hearing in Manhattan, U.S. District Judge Denise Cote approved what she called a “highly unusual” accord. It calls for Apple to pay $400 million to as many as 23 million consumers if the company is unsuccessful in appealing a ruling that found it liable for antitrust violations.<\/p>\n
The $400 million comes on top of earlier settlements with five publishers in the case, which provided $166 million for e-book purchasers.<\/p>\n
Apple agreed to the settlement in June, ahead of a damages trial set for two months later in which attorneys general in 33 states and territories and lawyers for a class of consumers were expected to seek up to $840 million.<\/p>\n
During Friday’s hearing, Cote said it was an “unusually structured settlement, especially for one arrived at on the eve of trial.”<\/p>\n
The deal allows Apple to continue to appeal Cote’s July 2013 ruling that Apple had violated antitrust laws by colluding with the publishers to drive up e-book prices and impede rivals such as Amazon.com.<\/p>\n
That accord calls for Apple to pay $400 million to consumers and $50 million to lawyers if Cote’s findings are upheld on appeal, and nothing if the Cupertino, California-based company wins its appeal.<\/p>\n
If the appeals court overturns Cote and returns the case to her, perhaps for a new trial, Apple would owe $50 million to consumers and $20 million to lawyers.<\/p>\n
While the deal was unusual, Cote said she understood why the plaintiffs decided to go with it, given delay tactics by Apple.<\/p>\n
An Apple spokesman did not respond to a request for comment.<\/p>\n
The ruling finding Apple liable followed a non-jury trial in lawsuits filed in 2012 by the U.S. Justice Department and states attorneys general against Apple and the publishers.<\/p>\n
The publishers include Lagardere SCA’s\u00a0Hachette Book Group Inc, News Corp’s HarperCollins Publishers LLC, Penguin Group (USA) Inc, CBS Corp’s\u00a0Simon & Schuster Inc and Verlagsgruppe Georg von Holtzbrinck GmbH’s Macmillan.<\/p>\n
A federal appeals court is scheduled to hear Apple’s appeal Dec. 15.<\/p>\n
The case is In Re: Electronic Books Antitrust Litigation, U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, No. 11-md-02293.<\/p>\n
–<\/p>\n
Source: Reuters<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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