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Friday, May 24, 2013, 02:44 am

Judge says evidence will likely show Apple culpable in e-book price fixing caseBy Mikey Campbell

In rare pre-trial "tentative view," Judge Denise Cote said the U.S Department of Justice will likely be able to prove that Apple colluded with major book publishers to falsely inflate the prices of e-books sold through the iBookstore.

iBooks

According to in-court reports from Reuters, Judge Cote offered her view at a hearing for the court trial set for June 3, saying she came to the tentative conclusion after looking over a portion of the evidence.

"I believe that the government will be able to show at trial direct evidence that Apple knowingly participated in and facilitated a conspiracy to raise prices of e-books, and that the circumstantial evidence in this case, including the terms of the agreements, will confirm that," Judge Cote said.

She was quick to note, however, that the opinion was not final as all of the evidence had yet to be accounted for.

Though unusual, the jurist's statements did not come unsolicited, as DOJ lawyer Mark Ryan requested she share any thoughts on the case given the evidence at hand. The "tentative view," which came down negatively for Apple, was based largely on correspondence from a six-week period between December 2009 and January 2010.

The emails Judge Cote alluded to could include a conversation between late Apple cofounder Steve Jobs and then CEO of News Corp. James Murdoch, a page of which was published last week."We strongly disagree with the court's preliminary statements about the case today." - Apple lawyer Orin Snyder

"We strongly disagree with the court's preliminary statements about the case today," Apple counsel Orin Snyder said in a prepared statement. "We look forward to presenting our evidence in open court and proving that Apple did not conspire to fix prices."

Thursday's pretrial hearing was largely procedural, with counsel for both parties dealing with matters of testimony and trial length. Judge Cote did mention, however, that she was already drafting a written decision which would be fleshed out and published once proceedings wrap up.

At the trial, Apple will argue that it did not collude to raise e-book prices under a so-called "agency model" pricing agreement with five major book publishers. Under the deal, publishers were allowed to set prices of owned content under a most favored nations agreement, which precluded them from selling the books elsewhere for less.

Apple's model was a change from the wholesale model used by market leader Amazon, under which publishers sold content in bulk, while resellers were able to establish pricing and discounts as they saw fit.

In related news, book publisher Penguin, which was one of the five houses alleged to have conspired to raise e-book prices with Apple, settled a class-action suit on Wednesday. The publishing house paid out $75 million to 33 U.S. State Attorneys General and numerous private class plaintiffs. Tags:lawsuitsiBooksJump to comments (130)Categories:General(function(d, s, id) { var js, fjs = d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0]; if (d.getElementById(id)) return; js = d.createElement(s); js.id = id; js.src = "//connect.facebook.net/en_US/all.js#xfbml=1"; fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js, fjs);}(document, 'script', 'facebook-jssdk'));Tweet!function(d,s,id){var js,fjs=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0];if(!d.getElementById(id)){js=d.createElement(s);js.id=id;js.src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js";fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js,fjs);}}(document,"script","twitter-wjs"); Pin It

On Topic: GeneralFoxconn may sell own branded accessories after Apple profits dipReview: Scosche enters car radio fray with iOS connected controlFREQWorking Apple I fetches $671,400 in German auctionGoogle's Motorola issues second appeal of dismissed ITC case against AppleSouth Australia's first Apple Store draws line hours ahead of opening [update: photos and video]Today's' HeadlinesFoxconn may sell own branded accessories after Apple profits dipApple's iPhone sales tactics in Europe under antitrust investigationRelated ArticlesApple e-book price fixing trial set for 2013Apple's Cook may testify in ongoing DoJ e-book lawsuitApple seeks trial over DoJ price fixing allegationsNotes from Steve Jobs' biographer will not be used in DoJ e-book case against ApplePenguin agrees to $75M settlement in Apple iBooks price fixing lawsuitPrevious Comments View Allslurpy2013/05/24 02:55am

What a crock of shit.?

franktinsley2013/05/24 04:36am

You know, reading the emails between Steve Jobs and the book people, I think Steve had good intentions but, if there's laws against conspiring to increase prices across an industry, I'm afraid he may have indeed played a pivotal roll in breaking them.

hill602013/05/24 05:15am

Sounds like grounds to have the case thrown out and moved to another court.

Since when do judges make guilty pronouncements before being presented with all the evidence?

I found this film of the judge getting ready for the "court":-

franktinsley2013/05/24 05:38am

ireland2013/05/24 05:39am

Look over there, there's a pot of money. I don't get the price fixing aspect of this when there are alternate stores. Doesn't that automatically make it not price fixing?

solipsismx2013/05/24 06:06am

Quote:Originally Posted by sapporobabyrtrns?

Based on what? The fact that you are a Tim Cook pants dweller and that Apple can do no wrong? Apple is not your friend or the friend of anyone. They are as evil and greedy as Google, Microsoft, Yahoo, Nokia, etc... The moment you wake up to understand this, the better for you and your ill-informed comments.
I agree with Slurpy. Based on the known emails there is nothing from Apple or Jobs that shows any colluding. Jobs covered a huge range of scenarios in his email about what he thinks the future will hold for ebooks if Amazon were to be allowed to continue dumping and how he thinks this will be bad for the market in the long run. There is zero evidence in those emails of any underhanded dealings. In fact, we can deduce from the emails that Jobs was directing his comment to a single person, not a group of people represented by each publisher, which means they clearly show no conspiracy as it's been painted. In fact, the emails so far show this to be correspondence with the last, single hold out of the major publisher days before the iPad announcement. Everything shows Apple working with each publisher independently. Whether the publishers got together in some back room meeting to put the screws to Amazon is another story but so far nothing shows Apple was involved in any of that. Personally I don't think the publishers did that either. There was simply no reason to. They all independently disliked Amazon weakening their brand and product by selling it at a reduced price. They knew this would hurt the publishers in the long run and probably realized that Amazon's dumping would not be sustainable in the long run.

gatorguy2013/05/24 06:07am

Quote:Originally Posted by Ireland? View Post

Look over there, there's a pot of money. I don't get the price fixing aspect of this when there are alternate stores. Doesn't that automatically make it not price fixing?

The seven major publishers (somehow) all agreed at once that the minimum price for a "Bestseller" e-book could not be less than $12.99. No book seller, Amazon included, could sell from that specific category at a lower price. The minimum price was fixed.

gatorguy2013/05/24 06:11am

Quote:Originally Posted by SolipsismX? View Post

I agree with Slurpy. Based on the known emails there is nothing from Apple or Jobs that shows any colluding. Jobs covered a huge range of scenarios in his email about what he thinks the future will hold for ebooks if Amazon were to be allowed to continue dumping and how he thinks this will be bad for the market in the long run. There is zero evidence in those emails of any underhanded dealings. In fact, we can deduce from the emails that Jobs was directing his comment to a single person, not a group of people represented by each publisher, which means they clearly show no conspiracy as it's been painted. In fact, the emails so far show this to be correspondence with the last, single hold out of the major publisher days before the iPad announcement. Everything shows Apple working with each publisher independently. Whether the publishers got together in some back room meeting to put the screws to Amazon is another story but so far nothing shows Apple was involved in any of that. Personally I don't think the publishers did that either. There was simply no reason to. They all independently disliked Amazon weakening their brand and product by selling it at a reduced price. They knew this would hurt the publishers in the long run and probably realized that Amazon's dumping would not be sustainable in the long run.

Hasn't only a portion of a single email been released to public view so far? I agree that there's been no smoking gun produced but then the trial hasn't even started yet.

richl2013/05/24 06:12am

The deal specified that the books couldn't be sold cheaper anywhere else. If my understanding is correct, that's the crucial part.

solipsismx2013/05/24 06:13am

Quote:Originally Posted by Gatorguy?

Hasn't only a portion of a single email been released to public view so far? I agree that there's been no smoking gun produced but then the trial hasn't even started yet.
There have been at least several full emails going back and forth between Jobs and one person of one publisher.

http://qz.com/87184/the-steve-jobs-emails-that-show-how-to-win-a-hard-nosed-negotiation/

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