Quote:
Originally Posted by rhadin
A prima facie case can be made based on the discussions and public announcements of Apple and the original Agency 5. The real crux of the issue, I think, is whether the courts will decide that all books can be considered a single product or each book has to rise and fall on its own. If the former, then the possibility of collusion exists; if the latter, collusion on pricing would be impossible to prove because each book has no competition. Publishers can rightly claim that the newest Terry Brooks release is not a substitute for the newest Stephen King release so there can't be collusion even if the price is the same.
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Even on your theory, you still would have to find evidence that Apple and the publishers got to together and said , "Ebook prices are naturally too low; we have to band together to push them higher!" I think you will find lots of talk that Amazon was pricing ebook bestsellers below cost to drive competitors out of the ebook market ( which is what was happening) and that Amazon needed to be stopped. That's not an illegal agreement to raise prices, though.