Did Apple Play the Silent Hand in e-Books Price-Fixing Scandal?
The U.S. Department of Justice vs. Apple trial has kicked off today in federal court. The trial is set to stretch three weeks, and today marks the first day of the trial that could potentially set the rules of Internet commerce.
Both sides presented their opening statements with the DOJ stating that the Cupertino giant colluded with publishers in 2010 before its iPad was released to raise the price of ebooks. In 2011, Apple and five of the six big publishing houses were slapped with an antitrust lawsuit for conspiring to fix the pricing of ebooks. Hachette Book Group, Simon & Schuster Inc., and HarperCollins Publishers LLC were quick to settle and terminated their contracts with Apple, while Penguin and Macmillan tried to defend themselves but eventually gave in and settled as well.
Apple has been stern in its stance from the very beginning, and CEO Tim Cook recently stated,“We’re not going to sign something that says we did something that we didn’t do, so we’re going to fight,” when his company was asked to settle.
The big question now is: why did Apple choose to fight when its allies have abandoned the cause, and is Apple really the ringmaster of this ebook pricing scandal?
Joining Kristin Feledy on this morning’s Live NewsDesk Show is Wikibon Chief Analyst Dave Vellante with his Breaking Analysis on Apple’s debacle.
“I don’t necessarily see the ‘hard collusion,’” Vellante stated. “Apple, I think, was playing the silent hand in all these. Ringmaster is kind of an interesting term…I’m not sure Apple was the ringmaster although I feel as though Apple totally understood what was going on here.”
When asked about his take on former Policy Director for the U.S. Federal Trade Commission David Balto’s statement, “This case will effectively set the rules for Internet commerce,” Vellante countered that the market is the one that is “ultimately gonna determine what happens in long term Internet commerce” – not the ruling for this case.
For more of Vellante’s Breaking Analysis on what would happen to Apple if it loses this battle, check out the NewsDesk video below:
Since you’re here …
… We’d like to tell you about our mission and how you can help us fulfill it. SiliconANGLE Media Inc.’s business model is based on the intrinsic value of the content, not advertising. Unlike many online publications, we don’t have a paywall or run banner advertising, because we want to keep our journalism open, without influence or the need to chase traffic.The journalism, reporting and commentary on SiliconANGLE — along with live, unscripted video from our Silicon Valley studio and globe-trotting video teams at theCUBE — take a lot of hard work, time and money. Keeping the quality high requires the support of sponsors who are aligned with our vision of ad-free journalism content.
If you like the reporting, video interviews and other ad-free content here, please take a moment to check out a sample of the video content supported by our sponsors, tweet your support, and keep coming back to SiliconANGLE.
