Justice Dept. Settles with Three Publishers, Continues Action Against Apple and Two Others

As stated in the department’s complaint, one publisher’s CEO said, “Our goal is to force Amazon to return to acceptable sales prices through the establishment of agency contracts in the USA. . . . To succeed our colleagues must know that we entered the fray and follow us.”

The publishers also agreed with Apple to pay Apple a 30 percent commission for each eBook purchased through Apple’s iBookstore and promised, through a retail price-matching most favored nation (MFN) provision, that no other eBook retailer would sell an eBook title at a lower price than Apple.