On Wednesday, April 11th, 2012, the United States Department of Justice, Antitrust Division, filed a civil antitrust conspiracy lawsuit against Apple Inc. and 5 of the nation's largest publishers, accusing them of conspiring to raise prices in the fast-growing e-book business.
The U.S. government alleges in the civil suit that, among other things, CEOs of the publishing companies met regularly in private dining rooms of upscale Manhattan restaurants to discuss how to respond to steep discounting of their e-books by Amazon.com Inc., a practice they disliked. The executives also called and emailed each other to craft a solution to what one of them called "the wretched $9.99 price point," the suit said.
The five publishers and Apple hatched an arrangement that lifted the price of many best-selling e-books to $12.99 or $14.99, according to the suit. The publishers then banded together to impose that model on Amazon, the government alleged.
"As a result of this alleged conspiracy, we believe that consumers paid millions of dollars more for some of the most popular titles," said Attorney General Eric Holder.
[WSJ, Thursday, 4-14-2012, p. A1]
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