As the Apple ebook pricing trial enters its final week, much of SVP Eddy Cue’s testimony Monday focused on Steve Jobs’ involvement with the launch of the iBookstore. Read more »
On Thursday, the Apple ebook trial brought testimony from Amazon and Google executives, and some tough and often funny questioning from Apple’s attorneys. Read more »
In court on Wednesday, Amazon executive Russ Grandinetti argued that publishers’ switch to the agency model was intended to “slow down the success of the Kindle,” while Simon & Schuster CEO Carolyn Reidy said Apple did not force publishers to enact agency contracts with Amazon and other retailers. Read more »
The Department of Justice’s trial against Apple kicked off in New York Monday. The DOJ alleges that Apple conspired with publishers to set ebook prices, while Apple argues that there was no conspiracy and that Apple was operating the way it normally does with content providers. Read more »
Ebook pricing strategies are changing fast as the market evolves and retailers and publishers amass more data. Here are some new tips. Read more »
Penguin has agreed to pay $75 million to settle the ebook pricing lawsuit with consumers and states. Meanwhile, Apple and the Department of Justice are set to go to trial on June 3. Read more »
A piece in the New York Times says ebook prices aren’t falling rapidly because the growth rate of ebooks isn’t as rapid as it once was and e-readers are falling in price. But that explanation doesn’t tell the whole story. Read more »
Macmillan CEO John Sargent said Wednesday that the publisher does not plan to follow Penguin’s lead and settle with the Department of Justice in the ebooks lawsuit. However, Macmillan voluntarily entered new retailer contracts that conform with many of the requirements in the original settlement. Read more »
Penguin, which is merging with Random House, has settled with the Department of Justice in the ebook pricing lawsuit, which alleges that Apple and publishers conspired to set ebook prices. Penguin had planned to fight the case in court, but the pending merger has changed that. Read more »
Reuters cites two unidentified sources who says that the European Commission has accepted Apple and four publishers’ proposed ebook pricing settlement. As we previously reported, the EU settlement includes Apple, Simon & Schuster, HarperCollins, Hachette and Macmillan parent company Holtzbrinck. Macmillan and Apple are not settling in the U.S. Read more »
With many ebook buyers set to receive small payments as a result of the $69 million settlement between 49 states and three publishers, the states have slightly modified the way those payments will work. Read more »
Last December, the European Commission began investigating Apple and five book publishers for allegedly conspiring to set ebook prices. Now the EC, Apple and four of the publishers have reached a preliminary agreement that largely mirrors the terms of the ebook settlement in the U.S. Read more »
A judge has preliminarily approved the states’ $69 million ebook pricing settlement with publishers, but consumers won’t receive any payments until after a hearing is held in February 2013. Payments would range between $0.25 and $1.32 per ebook. Read more »
Last week, a federal judge approved the DOJ’s proposed settlement with Simon & Schuster, Hachette and HarperCollins for allegedly conspiring with Apple to set ebook prices. What does the settlement mean for ebook prices now? Read more »
Ebook buyers in 54 states and territories are set to receive $69 million in a settlement between the states and HarperCollins, Hachette and Simon & Schuster. Those who bought agency-priced ebooks between April 2010 and May 2012 are eligible for payment if the settlement goes through. Read more »
The Department of Justice wants the court to accept its proposed ebook pricing settlement with Apple and book publishers, but presiding Judge Denise Cote is allowing more parties who oppose the settlement — the Authors Guild and attorney Bob Kohn — to weigh in as amici curiae. Read more »
In a filing late Wednesday in response to Apple and book publishers, the Department of Justice reiterates its claim that agency pricing and the alleged conspiracy have resulted in “unmistakable consumer harm,” but refuses to release its ebook pricing analysis. Read more »
Along with Apple, publishers Penguin and Macmillan and the Authors Guild submitted filings criticizing the DOJ’s proposed ebook settlement on Wednesday. They argue that the DOJ has not provided analysis of Amazon’s ebook pricing and say the settlement goes too far. Read more »
As a verdict on the DOJ’s proposed ebook pricing settlement with three publishers approaches, Apple has requested and received permission to file another response to the settlement. Apple has also requested a hearing on the settlement, which the DOJ opposes. Read more »
The American Booksellers Association and Barnes & Noble say the DOJ’s proposed ebook pricing settlement is so harmful to booksellers and consumers that they want to file their own brief in the case. Presiding Judge Denise L. Cote has said they may do so by August 15. Read more »
The Department of Justice’s lawsuit against Apple and major book publishers “sounds plausible on its face, [but] could wipe out the publishing industry as we know it, making it much harder for young authors to get published,” New York senator Charles Schumer writes in a WSJ op-ed. Read more »
In response to an attorney’s letter criticizing the delayed publication of comments on the proposed ebook pricing settlement, the Department of Justice says it received over 800 comments and is “working expeditiously” to make them available to the public by July 20. Read more »
The Department of Justice was supposed to publish all of the letters it has received about the ebook pricing settlement by June 25. Its failure to do so violates the Tunney Act, attorney Bob Kohn tells the judge presiding over the case in a letter. Read more »
