Consumer e-Book Price-Fixing Class Action Moves Forward

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A federal judge has ruled in favor of e-book consumers by refusing to dismiss a class action lawsuit accusing Apple and the nation’s largest book publishers of conspiring to illegally fix the prices of digital books.

U.S. District Judge Denise Cote denied court petitions by the Defendants to dismiss the e-book price-fixing case, allowing the class action lawsuit to move forward.

The case was originally filed in August 2011, and seeks to represent e-book purchasers whom the class action lawsuit says were forced to pay tens of millions of dollars more for electronic books because of the alleged price-fixing scheme organized by Apple, Hachette, HarperCollins, Macmillan, Penguin and Simon & Schuster.

The U.S. Justice Department last month sued Apple and the publishers, making very similar allegations to the consumer class action lawsuit and citing much of the same evidence. The DOJ accused the companies of actively conspiring to monopolize the e-book market in order to push Amazon’s Kindle e-reader out, while driving up prices for consumers.

“We litigated this case because we strongly believe that consumers were harmed by Apple and the publishers’ tactics and we will not settle without an effective plan to repay consumers for their losses,” the Plaintiffs’ attorney said in a statement. “Rather than compete on merit, price and convenience, we intend to prove that the cabal simply tried to game the system.”

The e-book antitrust class action lawsuit is seeking to compensate e-book purchasers for losses incurred as a result of the alleged price-fixing scheme.

The case is In re: Electronic Books Antitrust Litigation, Case No. 11-md-02293, U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York.

UPDATE 1: Credits went out to Kindle and Nook customers from the e-book price fixing class action settlement starting March 24, 2014. Credits from other e-book retailers are expected to be distributed soon.

UPDATE 2: Apple Inc. announced June 16, 2014, that it had reached an undisclosed class action lawsuit settlement in the e-book antitrust litigation. 

UPDATE 3: A federal judge preliminarily approved a $450 million Apple e-book class action settlement on Aug. 1, 2014. A Final Fairness Hearing is scheduled for Nov. 21, 2014. 

UPDATE 4: A settlement website has been established for the Apple e-books class action settlement. Click here for more information.

UPDATE 5: On Nov. 21, 2014, U.S. District Judge Denise Cote granted final approval to the Apple e-book class action settlement.