Shoshanna Utchenik
ticklethewire.com
If you ever wondered why e-books were so pricey, now you know.
The Justice Department announced Wednesday that it has filed an antitrust lawsuit in New York against Apple and five big-time publishers, Hachette, HarperCollins, Macmillan, Penguin and Simon & Schuster, accusing them of conspiring to keep the price of ebooks high. At the same time, the department said it had filed proposed settlements with Hachette, HarperCollins and Simon & Schuster.
The settlement would grant retailers–such as Amazon and Barnes & Noble–the freedom to reduce the prices of their e-book titles, the Justice Department said.
“As a result of this alleged conspiracy, we believe that consumers paid millions of dollars more for some of the most popular titles,” Attorney General Eric Holder said in a statement. “We allege that executives at the highest levels of these companies–concerned that e-book sellers had reduced prices–worked together to eliminate competition among stores selling e-books, ultimately increasing prices for consumers.”
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