(Reuters) – Apple Inc and several major publishers were accused by
the U.S. government of conspiring to fix prices of e-books and limit retail price competition, according to a lawsuit filed
on Wednesday.
Apple's new iPad to a customer at the 5th Avenue Apple Store in New York, March 16, 2012. REUTERS/Shannon Stapleton
“Apple facilitated the publisher defendants’ collective effort to end retail price competition by
coordinating their transition to an agency model across all retailers,” according to the complaint, filed in Manhattan
federal court by the anti-trust division of the U.S. Department of Justice.
The publishers include Hachette Book
Group, HarperCollins, MacMillan, Penguin Group, Pearson Plc and Simon & Schuster, a unit of CBS Corp.
(Reporting
By Grant McCool; editing by
John Wallace)
