The U.S. filed an antitrust lawsuit Wednesday against Apple Inc. and five of the nation's largest publishers, alleging they conspired to limit competition for the pricing of e-books. Ashby Jones joins Markets Hub with details. Photo: AP Photo/Mark Lennihan.
The U.S. accused Apple Inc. and five of the nation's largest publishers Wednesday of conspiring to raise e-book prices, in a case that could radically reorder the fast-growing business.
In a civil antitrust lawsuit, the Justice Department alleged that CEOs of the publishing companies met regularly in private dining rooms of upscale Manhattan restaurants to discuss how to respond to steep discounting of their e-books by Amazon.com Inc., a practice they disliked. The executives also called and emailed each other to craft a solution to what one of them called "the wretched $9.99 price point," the suit said.
The five publishers and Apple hatched an arrangement that lifted the price of many best-selling e-books to $12.99 or $14.99, according to the suit. The publishers then banded together to impose that model on Amazon, the government alleged.
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