Apple found guilty in e-book price fixing case (Photo : Twitter)
A federal appeals court has ruled Apple guilty of colluding with publishers in a bid to fix e-book prices, which mandated the Cupertino-based company to pay the $450 million fine.
Apple though is putting up a brave front and has stated they have done no wrong but are keen to get past this. It is not immediately clear if they wish to take any legal recourse challenging the court order.
"While we want to put this behind us, the case is about principles and values. We know we did nothing wrong back in 2010 and are assessing next steps," Apple said in a statement obtained by Reuters.
Apple has already been found guilty in the e-book price fixing case by a lower court in 2013.
"We conclude that the district court correctly decided that Apple orchestrated a conspiracy among the publishers to raise e-book prices," Second Circuit Judge Debra Ann Livingston wrote, as The Wall Street Journal quoted.
Most of the $450 million fine will be paid to consumers who had bought e-book at the allegedly inflated prices. The amount though is hardly expected to create any ripples inside Apple considering the huge $193.9 billion that the company reported to have in its fold as cash reserves or investments elsewhere in its Q2 earning report.
Apple is charged with creating an alliance with five of the Big Six publishers comprising Simon & Schuster, HarperCollins, Macmillan, Penguin and Hachette. Together, they fixed the price of e-book on offer at the iBookStore at $19.99 in a bid to counter Amazon's $9.99 e-book rate for the latter's Kindle e-reader, Los Angeles Times reported.
Before, Amazon almost singlehandedly dominated the e-book market with the Kindle e-readers. In 2010 Apple has launched the iPad and took a bite on Amazon's share in the market.
Publishers have always feared the coming of the e-books, which they considered a direct threat to their age old business model that thrived around the printed books. With e-book sales dominating that of its printed counterparts, it has become a topic of many a debate as to how authors are to benefit from the sale or lending of e-books.
