Apple To Fight US Alone Over Alleged E-Book Price Fixing As Final Publisher Settles

Macmillian has become the fifth and final U.S. publisher to settle with the Department of Justice over alleged e-book price fixing. This means that Apple will be the only defendant versus the government at a trial later this year, according to Reuters. Since 2010, according to the government, Apple, along with five of the nation’s largest publishers instituted an agency model to determine the prices of e-books. This model meant that publishers, not retailers, would set the price of books, with Apple receiving their automatic 30 percent cut. As a result, book prices across the board went up because no bookseller could undercut Apple. The publishers, who have all now settled with the government, included HarperCollins, Hachette, Simon & Schuster, Penguin, and the already mentioned Macmillan. Apple has said that they did not have "strong incentives to help the Publisher Defendants restrain trade and increase the price of eBooks.” As of now, the government trial against Apple is supposed to begin in June.