U.S. Government Warns Apple and Publishers of Antitrust Lawsuit over e-Book Pricing

ibooks iconLast December, the U.S. Department of Justice acknowledged that it was conducing an antitrust investigation into the new "agency model" of e-book pricing that was championed by Apple ahead of its iBookstore rollout, a model in which publishers could set the retail prices of their books but could not sell them to retailers other than Apple for lower prices. A similar investigation has been ongoing in Europe as well.

The Wall Street Journal now reports that the Department of Justice has warned Apple and five e-book publishers that it intends to file an antitrust lawsuit against the companies over the matter, in which the companies are alleged to have colluded to raise the price of e-books.

Several of the parties have held talks to settle the antitrust case and head off a potentially damaging court battle, these people said. If successful, such a settlement could have wide-ranging repercussions for the industry, potentially leading to cheaper e-books for consumers. However, not every publisher is in settlement discussions.

The five publishers facing a potential suit are CBS Corp.'s Simon & Schuster Inc.; Lagardere SCA's Hachette Book Group; Pearson PLC's Penguin Group (USA); Macmillan, a unit of Verlagsgruppe Georg von Holtzbrinck GmbH; and HarperCollins Publishers Inc., a unit of News Corp. , which also owns The Wall Street Journal.

Many publishers were happy to sign on to Apple's agency model for book pricing, seeking to gain greater control of pricing for their content. After signing deals with Apple, they then turned to Amazon and other retailers, forcing them into the same arrangements by threatening to withhold their books from those retailers.

The Justice Department believes that Apple and the publishers acted in concert to raise prices across the industry, and is prepared to sue them for violating federal antitrust laws, the people familiar with the matter said.

The publishers have denied acting jointly to raise prices. They have told investigators that the shift to agency pricing enhanced competition in the industry by allowing more electronic booksellers to thrive.

Arguments that the agency model has actually increased competition center on Amazon's dominant position in the retail book industry, where it had frequently sold books at razor thin profits or even losses in order to attract customers for its broader shopping offerings. Under the agency model, greater price uniformity across retailers has allowed more companies to be competitive in the marketplace.

Popular Stories

Apple CarPlay Ultra instrument cluster themes 01

Apple's CarPlay Ultra Is Here – Does Your iPhone Support It?

Thursday May 15, 2025 5:17 am PDT by
Apple's recently announced CarPlay Ultra promises a deeply integrated in-car experience, but not all iPhone users will be able to take advantage of the new feature. According to Apple's press release, CarPlay Ultra requires an iPhone 12 or later running iOS 18.5 or later. This means if you're using an iPhone 11, iPhone XR, or any older model, you'll need to upgrade your device to access...
iPhone 17 Air Pastel Feature

iPhone 17 Air Battery Capacity and Weight Allegedly Revealed

Monday May 19, 2025 2:22 am PDT by
Apple is expected to launch an all-new ultra-thin iPhone 17 Air later this year, and while there have been plenty of rumors about the camera's overall design and thinness, we haven't heard any details about the device's weight and battery capacity until now. According to the leaker going by the account name "yeux1122" on the Korean-langauge Naver blog, the 6.6-inch iPhone 17 Air has a weight ...
Apple CarPlay Ultra instrument cluster themes 01

Apple's 'CarPlay Ultra' Experience Now Available

Thursday May 15, 2025 5:07 am PDT by
Apple today announced that its next-generation CarPlay experience, now dubbed "CarPlay Ultra" begins rolling out today, starting with Aston Martin vehicles. Subscribe to the MacRumors YouTube channel for more videos. CarPlay Ultra is now available with new Aston Martin vehicle orders in the U.S. and Canada. It will also be available for existing models that feature the brand's next-generation ...
CarPlay Ultra Climate Controls

Apple Says These Vehicle Brands Plan to Offer All-New CarPlay Ultra

Thursday May 15, 2025 8:13 am PDT by
Apple today announced the launch of CarPlay Ultra, the long-awaited next-generation version of its CarPlay software system for vehicles. CarPlay Ultra features deep integration with a vehicle's instrument cluster and systems, built-in Radio and Climate apps, customizable widgets, and more. The interface is tailored to each vehicle model and automaker's identity, and drivers can also adjust...
WWDC 2025 Banner

Apple Announces WWDC 2025 Schedule, Including Keynote Time

Tuesday May 20, 2025 8:13 am PDT by
Apple today announced a more detailed schedule for its annual developers conference WWDC, which runs from June 9 through June 13. The schedule confirms that Apple's keynote will begin on Monday, June 9 at 10 a.m. Pacific Time, with a live stream to be available on Apple.com, in the Apple TV app, and on YouTube. During the keynote, Apple is expected to announce iOS 19, iPadOS 19, macOS 16,...
Apple Intelligence General Feature

Report: Apple's Next-Gen Version of Siri Is 'On Par' With ChatGPT

Monday May 19, 2025 9:00 am PDT by
Apple has big plans to improve Siri over the next few years, Bloomberg's Mark Gurman and Drake Bennett report. Some Apple executives are now reportedly pushing to turn Siri into a true ChatGPT competitor. A next-generation, chatbot version of Siri has reportedly made significant progress during testing over the past six months; some executives allegedly now see it as "on par" with recent...
iOS 18 Siri Personal Context

Apple Will Reportedly Be More Cautious About Announcing New Features Well in Advance

Sunday May 18, 2025 2:50 pm PDT by
Apple plans to mostly stop announcing new features more than a few months before they are ready to launch, according to Bloomberg's Mark Gurman and Drake Bennett. The pair of reporters revealed this noteworthy tidbit towards the bottom of a lengthy report about Apple's artificial intelligence shortcomings today. This alleged change in strategy comes after Apple was forced to delay its more...

Top Rated Comments

realmike15 Avatar
172 months ago
Sounds feasible to me, I know for a fact when I check e-book vs hardcopy prices I've found e-books to be much more expensive on numerous occasions. This doesn't make sense from a printing and delivery standpoint, and makes me believe these companies are trying to take advantage of the hype and popularity behind ebooks as a new technology. I hope they come down hard on Apple and Publishers if it's true, ripping off customers should not be a business model for any company. No sympathy for greed.
Score: 40 Votes (Like | Disagree)
ElCidRo Avatar
172 months ago
Sounds feasible to me, I know for a fact when I check e-book vs hardcopy prices I've found e-books to be much more expensive on numerous occasions. This doesn't make sense from a printing and delivery standpoint, and makes me believe these companies are trying to take advantage of the hype and popularity behind ebooks as a new technology. I hope they come down hard on Apple and Publishers if it's true, ripping off customers should not be a business model for any company. No sympathy for greed.

Well said. The price of ebooks is WAY WAY too high. I even think they would make more profit if they had lower prices. Like 1/2 compared to the printed editions.
Score: 23 Votes (Like | Disagree)
WannaGoMac Avatar
172 months ago
Finally!

Fact is it costs a great deal LESS to distribute an ebook.

Fact because of DRM and continually increasing limitations on library ebook loan programs the publishers will actually sell more books in the long run compared to paper books.

Why are none of these savings (and increased sales) not being at all passed on to the consumer? Collusion by publishers to save old profit levels and potentially make higher ones because ebooks are cheaper to distribute).

I can't believe it's taken this long to get the gov regulators involved. Let's see if they actually do anything...
Score: 19 Votes (Like | Disagree)
silentbob007 Avatar
172 months ago
This isn't good! The government should not dictate what a company charges for it's products/services. If you are dissatisfied with Apple's pricing, you should buy your e-books from Amazon! If they overcharge, use Kobo or Barnes and Noble. If they overcharge, refuse to buy e-books until the pricing goes down.
It's called the free market.

Agreed that I am not a fan of government interference, but then again ... it is also a function of the government to keep a free market. If there was collusion to force others to raise their prices, then that is a place where the government has a rightful claim for interference.
Score: 9 Votes (Like | Disagree)
ihateilove Avatar
172 months ago
It's funny really: You see, on the one hand I feel it is appropriate to ensure people who make cultural things -- authors, artists, musicians and so on -- are able to make a comfortable living from their works. It enables them to focus on making the art I love.

On the other hand, I'm minded to oppose collusion. In this case, I fear only Amazon really wins, as if publishers can't keep publishing then we'll lose the more esoteric works as they'll focus entirely on mass market classics.

I find it hard to make a judgement call on what's right or wrong in this on those grounds.
Score: 8 Votes (Like | Disagree)
stockscalper Avatar
172 months ago
I think you're making the "mistake" of thinking about this logically.

Amazon gives a lot of money to democrats. The democrats are in power.

Apple competes with Amazon by undermining Amazon's monopoly on ebook publishing, and starts offering ebooks cheaper than Amazon was. So, Amazon calls their friends in washington-- Boom, Antitrust!

Antitrust is always used as a tool by one group to attack another group that is beating them in the free market.

IF you can't win in the marketplace, get government to use violence against your competitors.

This has nothing to do with Democrats or Republicans. It has to do with publishers getting together and setting prices for books and not letting book sellers, like Amazon, discount or deviate from the price they set. That's called price fixing and it's been illegal in this country for over 100 years. It's not a free market when companies collude to fix prices.
Score: 7 Votes (Like | Disagree)