US Court Decides Against Apple in Ebook Civil Lawsuit

The US Court in New York has ruled that digital and tech giant Apple, Inc. has conspired with several publishers in pricing e-books at higher rates.

Judge Denise Cote said in her ruling that there was “compelling evidence” the company had played a “central role” in the conspiracy, which has put prices of its e-books at a higher retail price. The judge has ordered further hearing, as the damages to this has yet to be determined.

But analysts are confident that this case will have very little impact on Apple’s current status, especially when it has earned a remarkable $145 Billion based on reports its last earnings report. One tech analyst in California even said, that while the judge’s decision was significant, the company, as with many other lawsuits it has to contend with, will be “able to weather this”.

Initial trial for this case began sometime at the end of 2009 and ended six weeks after. As this was ongoing, Apple continued to work with publishers for the release of its e-books to mark the launch of its newest product at that time — the iPad. Publishers were only willing to accept Apple’s offers, as its competition, such as Amazon.com, provided little incentive for them.

According to Judge Cote, “Understanding that no one publisher could risk acting alone in an attempt to take pricing power away from Amazon, Apple created a mechanism and environment that enabled them to act together in a matter of weeks to eliminate all retail price competition for their e-books.The evidence is overwhelming that Apple knew of the unlawful aims of the conspiracy and joined that conspiracy with the specific intent to help it succeed.”

The publishers who were also part of the civil lawsuit have individually settled the case prior to this decision.

Apple, meanwhile, has put Judge’s Cote decision on appeal.