A U.S. judge Apple prohibits signed agreements with five ... - ABC.es

Technology giant convicted of conspiring to raise prices for e-books

In a document showing today in the American judicial system logs, Denise Cote, Judge of New York, Apple prohibits agreements with publishers Hachette, Harper Collins, Simon & Schuster, Penguin and Macmillan for a period from two to four years.

The judge ruled on July 10 that Apple conspired with publishers to raise prices of electronic books and attempt to eliminate the competition, which violated the antitrust laws.

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Less than an hour for the close of trading, Apple shares advanced 0.25% and changed to $ 496.42 on the Nasdaq, which lost a quarter of its value in the last twelve months. The U.S. Justice Department last year accused Apple and several publishers with their conspiracy to cause consumers would pay “tens of millions of dollars” for their ebooks.

Publishers began to decide the price of e-books and conspired to raise the amount, which prevented Amazon could continue selling their “bargains” to $ 9.99. The online store that tactic launched in 2007 to attract customers to its Kindle reader and, through it, became the undisputed market leader, but publishers also feared that provoke a fall in the prices of printed works.

According to the complaint, before the release of the iPad in 2010 and its electronic bookstore iBookstore, publishers’ joined with Apple, who shared the same goal of limiting competition in the marketing of eBooks “.

The pact had the desired effect, as passed bestsellers sold on its website from $ 9.99 to between 12.99 and $ 16.99, which caused the Amazon’s market share came down significantly, according to the lawsuit.