Apple Ordered to Stagger E-Book Contract Negotiations, Refrain From 'Most Favored Nation' Clauses
Judge Denise Cote today issued her penalty ruling in the e-book pricing suit against Apple, ruling that Apple must stagger its contract negotiations with major publishers to prevent collusion and avoid entering into "most favored nation" (MFN) agreements with any publisher for five years, according to GigaOM. The MFN clauses in Apple's contracts with publishers prevented any other e-book retailer from undercutting Apple, giving Apple the right to at least match the best pricing offered by other retailers.
Judge Cote’s injunction forbids Apple from enforcing most-favored-nation clauses in any ebook publishing contracts for five years, and also forbids the company from entering into any book publishing contracts that contain them for five years. Apple had wanted this provision to be less broad, relating only to MFN clauses with the five publishers in the case who have already settled. Instead, it applies to all publishers.
Judge Cote defined the order in which Apple will be permitted to renegotiate contracts with publishers, beginning with Hachette 24 months after the judgment's effective date and staggering negotiations every six months thereafter for the five publishers involved in the case.
Apple is also required to hire an external compliance monitor to ensure that the company is complying with antitrust requirements.
In a win for Apple, Cote's ruling does not require the company to allow the return of direct store links from competing e-book distributors in their App Store apps, something the U.S. Department of Justice had requested in its proposed penalties.
Apple continues to deny that it engaged in price fixing, and is pursuing an appeal of the guilty verdict.
Popular Stories
Following over three months of beta testing, iOS 18 will finally be widely released to the public this Monday, September 16. The update should be available to install starting at around 10 a.m. Pacific Time (1 p.m. Eastern Time) in the Settings app under General → Software Update on the iPhone XS and newer. Below, we have highlighted eight key new features included in iOS 18, and Apple...
It's that time of year again. Apple is about to release iOS 18, which promises to bring a range of new features and improvements to iPhones worldwide. It's Apple's biggest software update of the year, and the company is expected to release it sometime today – Monday, September 16. Based on past releases, the update is likely to drop at around 10:00 a.m. Pacific Time/1:00 p.m. Eastern...
Apple's iPhone development roadmap runs several years into the future and the company is continually working with suppliers on several successive iPhone models simultaneously, which is why we sometimes get rumored feature leaks so far ahead of launch. The iPhone 17 series is no different – already we have some idea of what to expect from Apple's 2025 smartphone lineup. If you plan to skip...
Apple will likely hold another event in October this year to announce new Macs and iPads. If so, it would be the fourth time in the last five years that Apple has held an event in October. Last year, Apple held a virtual event on Monday, October 30 to announce new MacBook Pro and iMac models with the M3 series of chips. In his Power On newsletter today, Bloomberg's Mark Gurman reiterated...
Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo today said demand for the iPhone 16 Pro and iPhone 16 Pro Max has been "lower than expected" since the devices became available to pre-order in the U.S. and dozens of other countries on Friday. Kuo said his data is based on a "supply chain survey" and shipping estimates listed on Apple's online store. Kuo estimated that sales of all four iPhone 16 models reached...
iOS 18 will be released to the public on Monday, but the first Apple Intelligence features will not be available until iOS 18.1 is released in October. Apple Intelligence features will continue to roll out in iOS 18.2 and beyond, with the expected roadmap outlined below per Apple's website and rumors. Apple Intelligence requires an iPhone 15 Pro model or any iPhone 16 model, and it will...
