And the lawsuits just keep piling on as Apple and six eBook publishers are accused of price fixing.
Judge Denise Cote of US District Court in New York has given the green light for a class-action lawsuit to proceed against Apple and six book publishers that have been accused of price-fixing eBooks.
The suit was filed back in August 2011 and is separate from the suit filed by the Department of Justice last month which made similar accusations. In fear of Amazon dominating the eBook sector, Apple and the publishers allegedly conspired to assume a pricing plan -- AKA the Agency Model -- that allowed the publishers to set the price while Apple received a 30-percent cut. Apple reportedly said it would only agree to the price structure if the publishers enforced the new plan on other retailers like Amazon and Barnes & Noble, thus snuffing out competition.
After reviewing the evidence, Judge Cote said that the agreement between Apple and the book publishers just before the launch of the iPad tablet "is unlawful per se because it is, at root, a horizontal price restraint." This of course is her opinion, and a final ruling won't be made until both sides of the case are presented to a jury.
"There are ample allegations that Apple became an integral member of this conspiracy and well understood that the upshot of its participation would be the elimination of price competition at the retail level, forcing consumers to... 'pay a little more' for ebooks," the judge wrote.
The publishers named in the lawsuit include HarperCollins, Simon & Schuster, Hachette Book Group, Macmillan, Penguin and Random House. Three publishers already settled with the Department of Justice due to the impending expense. Others have decided to stand their ground alongside Apple.
As stated back in April, documents filed in the government's case suggested that former Apple CEO and late Steve Jobs played a key role in the "conspiracy." One piece of evidence is an email Jobs sent to one publisher, saying "Hold back your books from Amazon" and "Throw in with Apple and see if we can all make a go of this to create a real mainstream ebooks market at $12.99 and $14.99."
In retaliation, Apple said that the accusations made by the Department of Justice were untrue. "The launch of the iBookstore in 2010 fostered innovation and competition, breaking Amazon's monopolistic grip on the publishing industry. Since then, customers have benefited from eBooks that are more interactive and engaging. Just as we've allowed developers to set prices on the App Store, publishers set prices on the iBookstore."
Judge Denise Cote apparently thinks differently, allowing the class-action lawsuit to proceed. Canada is also going after Apple and five book publishers over eBook price fixing. The lawsuit was filed in Quebec Superior Court by lawyer Normand Painchaud last February. Like those filed here in the States, his class-action suit claims that Apple colluded with the book publishers to raise ebook prices in order to topple Amazon's dominance. Same story, different territory.
Amazon was only becoming a monopoly because they were willing to sell eBooks at low prices, benefiting the consumer, whereas the other eBook suppliers (and the publishers) wanted to have higher prices.
If I pay more for it I find the book more interactive and engaging... here I thought it was the story I was reading, not the price i paid for the book. Man all these years those hard cover readers really must enjoy them so much more than me reading the same text on paperback, I've been doing it wrong,. thank you apple for teaching me the way >_<
I wanted to get an ereader about a year-ish ago then I saw the price was more than paperbacks and laughed ... digital copy costing more than the physical media is ridiculous. I hope the courts fine the crap out of these companies and hopefully it'll bring down the prices of e books to acceptable levels where it makes sense since it costs them nothing on distribution
Amazon was only becoming a monopoly because they were willing to sell eBooks at low prices, benefiting the consumer, whereas the other eBook suppliers (and the publishers) wanted to have higher prices.
amazon didnt have a monopoly on the market. they had competition from borders and B&D at the time with great competitive pricing. Only reason Amazon steamrolled on the competition was because they made the kindle, which was by far superior to the competitions ebook readers.
*to a level agreed upon by Apple and the other publishers.
If I pay more for it I find the book more interactive and engaging... here I thought it was the story I was reading, not the price i paid for the book. Man all these years those hard cover readers really must enjoy them so much more than me reading the same text on paperback, I've been doing it wrong,. thank you apple for teaching me the way >_<
I wanted to get an ereader about a year-ish ago then I saw the price was more than paperbacks and laughed ... digital copy costing more than the physical media is ridiculous. I hope the courts fine the crap out of these companies and hopefully it'll bring down the prices of e books to acceptable levels where it makes sense since it costs them nothing on distribution
no, that's the shelf in GoG.
"from eBooks that are more interactive and engaging."
what happen to imagination??
Let's take these suckers down!!!
The Agency Model is Apple saying to the Publishers: "Mr. Publisher, you sell your books in the iBookStore at whatever price you want. Whatever the price Apple will get a 30% commission on every sale". Publishers make an appropriate profit, writers earn more, Apple makes 30% commission (just like products sold in the iTunes store). Customers pay suggested retail prices.
When eBooks cost more than paperback books (and often even more than hard cover books too), there is absolutely no excuse. Customers should pay less than a physical copy of the book would cost when they buy an eBook.
The problem here is that neither you nor I have the fainted idea of what costs are actually involved in printing a book. Or creating, publishing, and selling an eBook.
Well, Apple played a part in this too. If not for Apple, it wouldn't have happened at all. Apple used the eBook publisher's greed to make more money in what seems to be an illegal way. Apple is just as much at fault for this, if not more so, because they seem to have been both the catalyst for it (it seems that it was Apple who first contacted the eBook publishers about this), Apple was the means for it, and Apple should be held accountable for it too.
I can't imagine the costs of making an eBook being greater than that of a hard cover book, especially with long books. In fact, I can't imagine the costs of an eBook being anywhere near that of a paper-back book, let alone a hard cover book. It's the same words, except instead of spending money on ink, paper, the glue to hold it all together with in the spine (or any other method used for holding the book together, I'm not an expert on books), and for hard cover books, the hard covers. The eBooks should be substantially cheaper to make and distribute.
Not at all... An eBook is just some data, not a full piece of hardware plus the data like the books are. eBooks aren't physical at all. They are just the books, except without the cost of printing them onto books. Why should the data be more expensive than the data plus a physical medium for it? It shouldn't. It's more akin to saying that a music album should not be more expensive when it is a digital download (legally, of course) than it is when it is on a CD, except the CD is probably much cheaper to manufacture than even most books are.
That's the business I want to be in.
It's the same thing that they do with other stuff sold on their mobile store, such as the apps. 30% is a common number for the amount of cash per purchase on an app store based ecosystem that goes to the owner of the app store.