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The Justice Department announced it reached a settlement with Penguin Group (USA) Inc. in its antitrust lawsuit accusing five of the nation’s largest book publishers of conspiring with Apple Inc. to raise the price of e-books to consumers.
If approved, the Penguin e-book settlement leaves Apple and MacMillan as the only defendants remaining in the federal government’s e-book antitrust lawsuit accusing Apple of colluding with the publishers in 2009 to eliminate price competition and force e-book prices several dollars above the $9.999 Amazon.com charged for its Kindle books.
The DOJ settled with Hachette, HarperCollins and Simon & Schuster earlier this year. The trial against MacMillan and Apple is scheduled to begin in June.
“Since the department’s settlement with Hachette, HarperCollins and Simon & Schuster, consumers are already paying lower prices for the e-book versions of many of those publishers’ new releases and bestsellers,” said Jamillia Ferris, Chief of Staff and Counsel at the Department of Justice’s Antitrust Division. “If approved by the court, the proposed settlement with Penguin will be an important step toward undoing the harm caused by the publishers’ anticompetitive conduct and restoring retail price competition so consumers can pay lower prices for Penguin’s e-books.”
Under the proposed Penguin e-book settlement, Penguin “will be prohibited for two years from entering into new agreements that constrain retailers’ ability to offer discounts or other promotions to consumers to encourage the sale of the Penguin’s e-books,” and must submit to “a strong antitrust compliance program” that includes telling federal officials about any joint e-book ventures or any communications with other publishers, Justice Department officials said.
A separate consumer e-book price-fixing class action lawsuit settlement was reached earlier this year with Hachette, HarperCollins and Simon & Schuster. Class Members that purchased e-books published by the publishers between 2010 and 2012 will receive refunds of between $0.30 and $1.32 per e-book they purchased. (See In Re: Electronic Books Antitrust Litigation.)
The DOJ e-book antitrust lawsuit is United States v. Apple, Inc., et al., Case No. 12-cv-2826, U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York.
UPDATE: Amazon.com issued additional credits to eligible customers on July 23, 2015. Learn more.
