Quote:
Originally Posted by kjk
Curious how would that fit in with Apple's .99 pricing of music from all the music publishers back in 2003- that lasted until 2009, when the music publishers traded DRM for variable pricing?
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Well, as I said, these are my thoughts, not an informed legal opinion. However, I don't see any problem with Apple negotiating separately with [B]each[/B ] manufacturer to buy product at a price that lets Apple sell at 99 cents. This does not require that every manufacturer establish the same selling price for every song. It may be that the latest, hottest releases had very small margins for Apple. As I see it, the anti-trust problems would come from three scenarios.
1) If all of the music (or book) publishers agreed as a group to sell at 99 cents (as opposed to Apple setting the selling price).
2) If all of the publishers/manufacturers agreed to sell product to Apple for the same price. Note, this is somewhat subtle. If Apple is in a power position they could set a price for participating in their store and only allow admission to those willing to meet that price. This Apple-driven purchase price would be different than if the publishers agreed to a single, common price and then entered negotiations with Apple.
2) If Apple's agreement with book publishers also included an agreement to set prices (manipulate prices) for Amazon and other outlets.