Apple in Anti-Trust eBook Law SuitPosted by Koefoed Robles on June 11th, 2021 We have asked me Jones with us, because what we're gon na talk about here first, is this story: just hit the tape, the Justice Department's suing, some of the big book publishers and Apple, explain to us. What'S going right, we've known that this has been on the Justice Department's sort of list for a long time, they've been looking into pricing in the e-book market for some time today the news news breaks. It looks like that they have not been able to come to an agreement with Apple, so they it looks like a suit has has been filed now, what's really going on here, a few years ago, when ebooks were sort of just on the cusp of booming Apple. Apparently made an arrangement with several published some of the other publishers that are good to be named in in this lawsuit whereby they said okay, we want you guys to price at whatever you'd like to do wanted to give the publishers pricing power, rather than give the Pricing power to the retailers like Apple and and Amazon and others and the Justice Department. It is it's pretty clear now didn't really like that. So much because it looks like collusion of looked like some sort of Arrangements, price-fixing right, which is a violation of the antitrust laws. So so that's what's going on. It looks like some of the some of the publishers might agree to settle the allegations, but Apple. It appears right now is as good as gon na fight these charges is pursuing monetary damages. Presumably in this and a change in conduct, that's right. I mean the government will pursue monetary damages, it's dicey, business when you get into antitrust and you lock horns with the government every antitrust, because they can. They have a lot of money. They can go after your heart and damages or tend to be very high and they're tripled. There'S a there's, a provision in the answerís laws that trebles, which means triples everything that they can prove so damages, can get pretty steep in these cases. But if there's one company who can afford to fight these, it's probably out of these days. How much of this mirrors? What went on with the music industry and and how is it different because it seems like Apple, came up when they had iTunes? They came up with the $ 0.99 song and they sort of set a standard, but I don't recall this kind of price fixing allegations going on with the record industry's know. That is this. That'S right I mean my understanding is that there were individual and independently made agreements with all of the record companies. There wasn't this kind of big omnibus agreement between Apple and all of the publishers. At the same time, it's not so much. I think that the government is concerned with what Apple did, although they're the ones named in the suit, but but the publishers but apples are facilitating a price-fixing agreement between the publishers. And I don't think that happened with with the music industry. And yet the publishers have to be. You know rankling at this, because publishers, a their margins, got destroyed. With the advent of ebooks, I mean all of a sudden. You went from selling a hardcover book for 27 or 29 dollars to selling an e-book for $ 9.99. So the publishers tried to negotiate some deal that would give them some continuing authority over what they were doing, and you know their margins have just been crushed. The publishing industry, you know, is basically just sucking wind yeah and they can't catch a break. The one ray of light, I think in the publishing industry, is that people have taken to ebooks that people do buy Kindles and they do buy ebooks and the numbers. You know that the sales numbers are a little bit up, but you're right, the margins are just, are just nothing so so they because we used to getting electronic content for free right now. Of course, that's right. We don't have the time to leave it there, but I mean this is all in reaction to Amazon. Really Amazon was one that came in, because Amazon has this free and open model right there more so than Apple, and they have just anyone can upload a book. Anyone can charge what they want. The publishers can charge ninety nine hours, but I mean basically on Amazon. If you wanted to write a book, you don't need a publisher and you can set your own price and that, I think, is what the publishers really fear. That is their real death knell. They'Ll have no control whatsoever right right Apple, just as it has a tighter model with sort of with the pricing for kind of everything than Amazon. Yes, yeah. I want to leave it there. Ask tech tricks club for coming up, you came up at the last second appreciate it. No probLike it? Share it! |