Quote:
Originally Posted by pwalker8
While I know there is a whole lot of "any stick to beat Apple with" going on here, so far I haven't read anything that says that Apple fixed prices. Telling publishers that they can sale for whatever price they want, as long as they don't sale it for less elsewhere isn't exactly fixing prices.
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Try this:
http://paidcontent.org/2013/06/04/wh...and-shut-case/
Quote:
...antitrust law in the U.S. isn’t designed to help prevent competitors from being squashed by a large player in an industry — even if that player has what amounts to a monopoly position. The key point is whether that particular company’s behavior alters or damages the marketplace in a way that harms consumers. And when it comes to that, the DoJ is on rock-solid ground.
As the Justice Department pointed out in its opening statement, the price of e-books climbed by as much as 50 percent in the weeks following Apple’s agreement with the Big Five publishers.
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The emails that the DOJ vacuumed out of the conspirators' IT system clearly demonstrate that Apple was the go-between that enabled the other five to coordinate without sitting at one table. And when a Penguin exec said they could only raise prices if others were doing it Apple reassured them that they had all the others onboard.
Here's the DOJ's abstract of the mountain of evidence the collected from the five publishhers *and* Apple:
http://www.scribd.com/doc/145486131/...Opening-Slides
Just the quote on page 81 should be enough to guarantee a quick verdict.
They did it and they knew it was illegal and they've done it before against their own employees.
http://www.businessinsider.com/new-e...ges-low-2012-1
(That one they quietly settled with the feds but are still fighting the employee lawsuits.)
It's not about beating up on Apple but rather about Apple's repeated reliance on underhanded and illegal tactics.