Apple agrees to pay $400mln to settle e-book price fixing lawsuitJuly 17, 2014 - 09:30 AMT PanARMENIAN.Net - Technology giant Apple has agreed to pay as much as $400mln to settle a lawsuit into accusations that it colluded with publishers to fix the price of e-books. The settlement depends on Apple losing an appeal into a 2013 ruling that it violated anti-trust laws over pricing. That ruling found Apple orchestrated "a conspiracy with five publishers to artificially raise e-book prices". Apple has continued to deny that it engaged in any wrongdoing. "We did nothing wrong and we believe a fair assessment of the facts will show it," Kristin Huguet, an Apple spokeswoman, said. If approved by a judge, the $400mln will go to consumers. Apple will pay an additional $20mln in legal fees. "In a major victory, our settlement has the potential to result in Apple paying hundreds of millions of dollars to consumers to compensate them for paying unlawfully inflated e-book price," said New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman, who announced the settlement ahead of a damages trial that was set to begin on August 25. There, lawyers representing consumers and 33 U.S. states, were to request $840mln in damages be awarded to consumers who were negatively impacted by the alleged higher prices for e-books. The publishers who are accused of colluding with Apple - Hachette Book Group, HarperCollins Publishers, Penguin Group (USA) Inc, Macmillan and Simon & Schuster Inc - have already settled for $166mln in a separate suit. The settlement had previously been announced in late June but the details had not been released. Related links: Top stories Yerevan will host the 2024 edition of the World Congress On Information Technology (WCIT). Rustam Badasyan said due to the lack of such regulation, the state budget is deprived of VAT revenues. Krisp’s smart noise suppression tech silences ambient sounds and isolates your voice for calls. Gurgen Khachatryan claimed that the "illegalities have been taking place in 2020." Partner news Most popular in the section | The Power of One Dram to benefit Road of Life charity The companies inform that the May beneficiary of The Power of One Dram is the “Road of Life” charitable organization. Kazakhstan welcomes Yerevan, Baku’s agreement to meet in Almaty Kassym-Jomart Tokayev has welcomed the agreement of Baku and Yerevan to hold negotiations in Almaty. Armenia offers to temporarily host, preserve Gaza manuscripts The Armenian Foreign Minister has said Yerevan is ready to help preserve manuscripts from the conflict zone in Gaza. Aliyev says no need for mediators in Armenia-Azerbaijan process Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev believes that Baku and Yerevan do not mediators in the process of normalizing relations. |